Analysis of a below-water aggregate mining case study in Ontario, Canada using values-centric online citizen participation

Citizen perspectives on a controversial aggregate mining application amendment are elicited using an online participatory platform P2P-Surveys. The interface uses interactive visual cues to focus the subject’s attention on their social values framework as a decision-aide. Interactive elements encourage learning by providing values feedback and then allowing the subject to adjust their preference input or to change the values-modeling parameters prior to submitting their responses. Individual preference rankings are then aggregated using a Modified Borda Count for subsets of the participants. The resulting group preference rankings provide insights useful to researchers interested in the interface between social values and environmental decision making, and for decision makers who wish to harness citizen input for integrated decision making. A real-life case study for citizen input into a below-water aggregate mining controversy in Southern Ontario, Canada, is utilized to explain this new methodology and to demonstrate the useful information generated to assist in resources management decision making.