Knowing Where To Hit It: A Conceptual Framework for the Sustainable Development of the Himalayas

Thompson, M. & Warburton, M. (1984). Knowing Where To Hit It: A Conceptual Framework for the Sustainable Development of the Himalayas. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-84-030

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Abstract

This paper originated in a short exploratory piece of work for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in the nature of a "strategic reconnaissance" of a complex knot of environmental-social problems. However, early forays indicated strong underlying parallels with issues being explored in other case studies in the Institutional Settings and Environmental Policies (INS) project at IIASA. For this reason, and despite its limited external resources, the Himalaya work written up here took its place as one part of a troika INS project, that also involved research on hazardous waste management and on energy policy modeling.

Though the main effort has been on hazardous waste management, the intellectual connections between these apparently diverse research fields have proved most instructive. These connections have to do with the ways in which uncertainties (both technical and social) are defined by institutions, especially regulatory and policy analytic bodies. The thrust of research on all these fronts has been to better characterise different kinds of uncertainty and to explore the origins and policy implications of conflicting problem definitions. The practical aim in this effort has been to encourage better policy design. An understanding of the institutional roots of uncertainty and of multiple problem definitions opens the way for an anticipatory style of policy formulation that is capable of evaluating the implementability, and thus viability, of different policy options and institutional arrangements. This strategic concern is a direct evolution from the previous work of the Risk Group--the predecessor to INS.

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