Towards participatory decision-making under deep uncertainty: benefits and challenges

Decision-making under deep uncertainty (DMDU) provides a set of tools and methods to find resolutions for complex wicked problems, which requires considering multiple actors and uncertainty. However, not all characteristics of wicked problems are typically addressed by the DMDU toolkit. We identified three key shortcomings: the focus on analytical techniques, a lack of attention for sense-making of analytical artefacts with the various parties to a decision, and no attention for coming to a decision. Engaging stakeholders in the DMDU process is a promising direction for overcoming these shortcomings. This study addresses the need for a formalised approach for participatory DMDU. As such, we provide a general structure for participatory DMDU processes and present the potential benefits of engaging stakeholders for each step. We present four challenges in establishing a practice of participatory DMDU: 1) selecting promising projects; 2) designing valuable processes; 3) developing and documenting methods; and 4) evaluating transparently.