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Gedetailleerde leidraad

PBL Guidance for Uncertainty Assessment and Communication
0 Introduction to the Detailed Guidance
1 Problem Framing and Context
2 Process Assessment
3 Environmental Assessment Methods
4 Uncertainty Identification and Prioritization
5 Uncertainty Analysis
6 Review and Evaluation
7 Reporting
References
Acknowledgments
A Appendix: Uncertainty Matrix
A.1 Uncertainty location
A.2 Uncertainty level
A.3 Nature of uncertainty
A.4 Qualification of the knowledge base
A.5 Value-ladenness of choices
A.6 Instructions for filling out the uncertainty matrix
A.7 Uncertainty Matrix
B Appendix: Glossary

A.5 Value-ladenness of choices

The final dimension for characterizing uncertainties denotes whether a substantial amount of 'value-ladenness' and subjectiveness is involved in making the various - implicit and explicit - choices during the environmental assessment. This concerns, among other things, the way in which (i) the problem is framed vis à vis the various views and perspectives on the problem, (ii) the knowledge and information (data, models) is selected and applied, (iii) the explanations and conclusions are expressed and formulated. If the value-ladenness is high for relevant parts of the assessment, then it is imperative to analyze whether or not the results of the study are highly influenced by the choices involved, and whether this could lead to a certain arbitrariness, ambiguity or uncertainty of the policy relevant conclusions. This could then be a reason to explicitly deal with different views and perspectives in the assessment and to discuss the scope and robustness of the conclusions in an explicit manner. In order to identify this value-ladenness one could e.g. use the methods proposed in section 2.2.