The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide - Democrats Against UN ...

The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide
to understand the connection between the priority issue and the connecting issue that was just identified?” These questions
are recorded in the right hand column and are used to guide the research in a networked assessment of the issue or system.
7. Participants are organized into an assessment network consisting of Working Groups that collect information (with or
without technical assistance) to answer the questions identified in #6 above. The Working Groups are organized on the
basis of connecting issues that need to be better understood, such as “Housing, Land Development, and Transportation” or
“Social Support Programs, Recreation, and Health.” Each Working Group collects and analyzes data related to its issue,
and identifies the sources of further information, the regularity of data availability, and the gaps in data availability. The
Working Groups can also be asked to prepare preliminary assessment reports.
8. After technical research is completed and final Working Group reports are made to the whole group in a future meeting,
discussions are facilitated to develop a consensus analysis on the key issues that must be addressed to “provide afford-able
housing.” A final system map can also then be created to illustrate the chain of issues that are relevant to the priority issue
of concern.
This exercise can be organized to either constitute a full assessment procedure or can be used as a preliminary exercise to
scope out the key issues and terms of reference for a more formal technical assessment procedure.
A completed service issues map can be used by stakeholders throughout the process of issue analysis and action planning. The
preliminary map can be prepared based on the issues identified on the Worksheet during the mapping exercise. This map can be
upgraded after further technical research on these issues is completed. The map helps stakeholders to remember the different
systemic issues that must be considered when preparing action plans.
Networked Assessment
Networked assessment is an organizational approach used to involve stakeholders in the technical assessment of systemic issues.
The networked assessment approach can be used in conjunction with a variety of technical assessment methods and with
communities of all development backgrounds.
BOX C:
Systems Analysis: Technical Methods
There are four primary technical methods of systems analysis that are presently applied in local planning. These are: materials flow
analysis or “balancing,” carrying capacity analysis, system diagramming, and system modelling.
The Helsinki (Fig. 10) and Gothenburg (Case #9) cases are examples of materials flow analysis. They are helpful to quantify the
different end uses and waste streams of a resource, and to identify possible ways that a resource could be more efficiently used or
recycled within the community. This method focuses heavily upon the biophysical dynamics of a system and often overlooks their
relation to social and economic activities.
Carrying capacity analysis is used to determine the operating limits of a particular system—be it a natural ecosystem or an
infrastructure system—beyond which it is seriously damaged or becomes dysfunctional. This analysis requires separate assessments
of the different pressures or “loads” on the system and the possible response to these cumulative pressures.
Recently the methodology for “ecological footprinting” has been developed to assess the sustainability of current human activities
by estimating a city’s or household’s total appropriation of the Earth’s ecological carrying capacity. The methodology estimates the
resource consumption and waste assimilation requirements of a defined human population or economy in terms of a corresponding
productive land area. This land area is then compared with the average per capital and area available on the planet in order to
evaluate the sustainability of local lifestyles and identify activity areas that require change.
System diagramming produces a basic tool for planning: a diagram of the diverse components of a particular system and their
interactions. Figure 11 is an example of a system diagram that illustrates the complex impacts resulting from an infrastructure
project.
System modelling represents the next level of complexity in systems analysis. Building from a system diagram and information
from carrying capacity and materials flow analysis, a model attempts to indicate the causal relationships between the components of
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