Jayne Carrick: “Improving the legitimacy of the consenting process for marine renewable energy projects by participatory Bayesian Belief Network modelling of ecological and socio-economic data”

In Former students by jvnf65

Description:

The consenting process for marine renewable energy projects suffers from two inter-related problems; public opposition and the complexity of ecological and socio-economic impact assessments, leading to protracted delays. This research seeks to address these challenges and is inspired by experience working in the renewable energy sector, where I have seen the adverse effects of top down institutional and systematic complexity on participation. Stakeholder interactions and behaviour, as well as the procedures that dis-empower and drive wedges between stakeholders fascinate me. In response, this research explores ways to operationalise normative models of participation in environmental decision making, using advanced statistical modelling, known as Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) to unite participants with ecological and socio-economic data. Juxtaposing political theories of environmental justice and deliberative democracy, with normative models of participation, and advanced statistical modelling this research aims to improve the legitimacy of participatory decision-making process, and the use of socio-economic and environmental data.