Engaging stakeholders through participatory modelling

Engaging relevant stakeholders in the planning process can generate better mutual understanding among participants and lead to decisions that are more sustainable. This study examines the potential for stakeholders to participate with modellers in the construction of development scenarios that can be explored through microsimulation modelling approaches. This activity requires participants, who are drawn from local administrations and the communities that they serve, to engage with the model at different stages of its development. Such engagement is important for model design and for ensuring that the resulting models are able to frame questions that the stakeholders are interested in. This study adopted a participatory workshop approach across three European countries to explore the potential for stakeholders to engage with modellers at different stages of the modelling process. The interactions between modellers and local stakeholders provided a number of important insights on the future design, conduct and application of such exercises and suggest some limits to the use of scenario development as a tool for participatory modelling and sustainable development.