America’s Waterway Blog

Imagining the Internet & the Mississippi River

Posted on June 4, 2014 by unifythemississippi

The Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center just released their 2014 predictions for the world’s internet interaction by 2025. Their findings: the internet will be invisibly interwoven into people’s daily lives all over the globe. There will be increased access, more relationships, and people will be better informed.

It’s time to get on board this progress-train and use it for the future of the Mississippi River.

One of the most dazzling of the research’s implications for the Mississippi River, “The spread of the ‘Ubernet’ will diminish the meaning of borders, and new ‘nations’ of those with shared interests may emerge and exist beyond the capacity of current nation-states to control.”

While the authors are talking governance of nations, the same holds true for the governance of waters.

The marketing representative on the panel assembled by Pew and Elon gives his take: “From climate change to disease control, from water conservation to nutrition, from the resolution of immune-system-weakness conditions to solving the growing obesity problem, the answer lies in what the Internet will be in decades to come.” The panel also speculated that political awareness and action will be facilitated leading to more peaceful change.

On the Mississippi River, we need to harness these trends. For nearly a generation, we’ve known we needed to overcome jurisdictional boundaries and place-based solutions in favor of integrated approaches. The course of the internet’s development allows us to tap information and engagement to achieve this goal, even for a watershed as large as the Mississippi River’s.

So what’s holding us back? Our work-place systems and our work habits keep us returning to the same old meeting formats in rooms with projectors talking AT those who can afford either the time or the travel to attend, leaving out regional and community leaders with a stake in the River’s future. These behavior patterns are slow to change. Regulators continue to gather input AFTER they’ve introduced possible change. There is still restraint for tapping public input DURING formative deliberation. This can and needs to shift to the present for the Mississippi River’s sustainable future.

The tools for integrated watershed approaches for the Mississippi River watershed are available. Inclusive, facilitated, on-line collaboration such as Ethelo and Athenabridge produce boundary-less discussions based on interest areas, rather than geo-political watershed regions. Debategraph, a web-based, collaborative, idea-visualization tool uses on-line mapping to break down complex issues and arrive at consensus for the future. And the California Report Card enhances timely, direct communication and response between the public and leaders on important issues in that large and complex state. In addition, the engineering professions are introducing a process to ensure infrastructure – both on watersheds and throughout the country – adheres to standards for stakeholder participation to plan for the future. A look at our proposed National Dialogue for America’s Waterway reveals the use of many these combined.

The Pew and Elon Report speculates on how our future will be impacted by the Internet. Their predictions send a message to those of us working on the Mississippi River to acknowledge these developments and connect and activate them for the kind of integrated water resource management we wish for America’s great river. The future is upon us.

Posted in Future of the Mississippi River | Tagged A National Dialogue for the Future of America's Waterway, Athenabridge, California Report Card, Debategraph, Ethelo, Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, World Wildlife Fund Integrated River Basin Management | Leave a comment

Sustainable Mississippi River Requires Greater Public Awareness

Posted on March 6, 2014 by unifythemississippi

The chemical spill in West Virginia put a fine point on it. We are all vulnerable when it comes to clean water.

Of course, the Mississippi River is included. Over 50 cities get their drinking water from the Mississippi River. That’s nearly 18 million people. And then there are the birds – 40% of North America’s species – that rely on the River for clean water on their migratory flyway; the animals – 50+ mammal species – whose habitat is impacted by the availability and cleanliness of the River; and the Gulf’s fish and seafood – nearly 1.7 billion pounds in 2000 – whose habitat depends on the freshness (or non-freshness) of the Mississippi River’s water as its sediment filters its way to the sea.

We know there are threats to this water source and yet we wait for disasters like West Virginia to remind us.

A few weeks ago I learned about states and cities that are planning ahead. Minnesota, Virginia, Wisconsin and Kentucky have all adopted programs and a variety of funding mechanisms: cell phone charges; sales tax percentages; itemizing payments on utility bills. Cities like Sao Paulo, Brazil bill industry annually for water cleanup and Bloomington, Illinois relies on grants and partnerships.

But the scale of the Mississippi River and its watershed challenges even the most innovative of us.

In the U.S., taxation or fees for clean water rely on the public’s willingness to pay. We’re usually willing to make these payments locally because we understand our stake in the outcome. When we think of a river system as big as the Mississippi River, ways to pay to ensure its quality break down across borders and over long distances.

This is where increasing the public’s awareness of their stake in America’s great river and its future comes in. Despite regulation and top-down, “command and control” rules for discharge abatement and run-off reduction, only a portion of the Mississippi’s more than 1,500 gallons of water per day are treated, and the hypoxia-induced “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico remains the same or grows. Even with millions of USDA dollars going into the development of new farming practices, it still only addresses hundreds-of-acres here and hundreds-of-acres there. We’re talking thousands of square-miles of the world’s most productive farmland drained by the Mississippi Watershed.

So while we need targeted efforts and we need funding support on a scale that is the Mighty Mississippi, we won’t get either if the American public doesn’t grasp its stake in a cleaner, more sustainable Mississippi River. It’s time to build that awareness of the River’s role in our country’s and the world’s food security, and its life-giving role in individual communities, and its economic-driver role to the nation. Without that public awareness, the Mississippi River and its water will continue to be threatened until a greater catastrophe than the one in West Virginia comes along.

Posted in Future of the Mississippi River | Tagged America's Waterway, Mississippi River, Mississippi River Healthy Watershed Initiative, Visions of a Sustainable Mississippi River Conference | Leave a comment

Borrowing from Sustainable Agriculture for the Mississippi River

Posted on January 27, 2014 by unifythemississippi

When we think of agriculture and the Mississippi River, we see great barge transports, USDA healthy watershed efforts and silo-framed farms rolling over plentiful waves of grain. We should dig a little deeper for clues agriculture may have for the River’s future.

Today the sustainable agriculture movement is changing the face of American agriculture. How? They’re doing it through restaurants, school lunch programs and far mers’ markets in every community. In short, they’re engaging the public.

It wasn’t always that way. The movement got its roots in the mid-20^th century in response to modern farming techniques and mechanization. Just as sustainable agriculture started in the 1940s and ‘50s based on science, our understanding of rivers has been greatly influenced by science. We know from researchers that rivers (and lakes and oceans) are ecological systems and their systems require holistic and integrated approaches based on science.

But sustainable agriculture, along with the environmental movement in general, got a big boost in the 1960s and ‘70s from the writings of popularly read authors Rachel Carson (1962, Silent Spring) and Wendell Berry. Does the Mississippi River have a counterpart? Different authors have written about the Delta (Mike Tidwell’s Bayou Farewell) and the Flood of 1927 (John Barry’s Rising Tide). T.S. Eliot wrote about the River as a “strong brown god”. Samuel Clemmons version isn’t engaging the American public in the Mississippi River’s future, but rather its past. Perhaps Paul Schneider’s Old Man River will go farther? Time will tell.

What’s striking is the exponential leap in public support for sustainable agriculture in the last 15 years. The lessons come from moving the sustainable agriculture debate beyond science to the public. For agriculture, this has happened through the expansion and great public acceptance of farmer’s markets and restaurants specializing in “farm-to-table” cuisine. Science still plays a role. But public engagement has grown awareness, acceptance and support exponentially.

So how do we give the American public an appreciation for the whole Mississippi River, America’s great waterway? The answer is to share more about the whole River, its vastness and complexity. Here’s where borrowing from sustainable agriculture comes in handy. In addition to publishing papers on the science of the river and holding public hearings on its infrastructure, take the experience of the whole river to the public. Groups like Living Lands and Waters and the Corps’ “Our Mississippi” staff know this well. We at America’s Waterway plan to combine information, traditional media and on-line engagement around the whole river, too.

The need is for all of us who work on the River to begin engaging the public in the conversation about this great River and its future. The lesson we need to take from sustainable agriculture is that until the public gets involved, we’ll just be talking to each other.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged America's Waterway, Eat Well Guide, Grace Communication Foundation, John Barry, Living Lands and Waters, Mike Tidwell, Mississippi River Healthy Watershed Initiative, Samuel Clemmons, sustainable agriculture, t.s. eliot, U.S.Army Corps of Engineers "Our Mississippi", Wendell Berry | Leave a comment

Resolved: Increase National Awareness of Mississippi River For More Engagement

Posted on January 20, 2014 by unifythemississippi

New Year image According to “Statistic Brain” an on-line statistics nonprofit, 45 percent of Americans make New Year’s Resolutions and 38 percent absolutely never make them. This year I’ll be one of the 45 percent and I hope I’m one of the eight percent who achieve their resolutions.

My resolution: Increase national awareness of the Mississippi River so more engagement for the whole River takes place.

There’s no doubt public concern about the Mississippi River is on the upswing. If “Statistic Brain” took a measure of that concern though, it would be place-based and specific to either a location or an issue. Concern for the Mississippi River as America’s great waterway is still dispersed, diminutive and disorganized. Usually it peaks in calamity and wanes as the water recedes, only to rise again as the River’s banks overflow.

Other countries have a much greater sense of their rivers and their importance. In arid countries this is due to scarcity. In countries like the Netherlands with an abundance of water, there’s a history of public management out of necessity. America may be unique among developed nations in its national public ignorance of the importance of its great river resources.

So our New Year’s Resolution is to reduce that ignorance and engage the American public in more discussions about its great River. We’re not the only ones of course. The Mississippi Valley Traveler publishes books and blogs about great places to visit on the Mississippi River and the Great River Road has resources to drive alongside America’s Waterway. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers publishes Our Mississippi and a teacher curriculum guide called “Our Mississippi: Educational Activities about the Upper Mississippi”.

But the role of the Mississippi as a national water resource is often overlooked. Its role of providing water and habitat for humans, fish and wildlife is often not well recognized and its transportation prowess, its economic development potential throughout the Midwest and its cultural richness linking both events and the human spirit of the heartland go unacknowledged.

So make your New Year’s resolution to join with us, America’s Waterway, in reducing that ignorance by learning more about the whole Mississippi River and its national impact. Then engage more with others all along the Mississippi River and reclaim it as America’s great waterway. Become one of the 45 percent. Better yet, increase the eight percent to 10 or 12 percent and achieve that goal, too. Start here:

Posted in Culture and History, Economic, Environment, Future of the Mississippi River | Tagged America's Waterway, Great River Road, Mississippi Valley traveler, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers | Leave a comment

Building Capacity for Change on the Mississippi River

Posted on July 8, 2013 by unifythemississippi

The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative marks real progress toward unified approaches for America’s great waterway. At their second annual meeting in St. Cloud, Minn. in June, the mayors expressed their understanding of and commitment to whole-river approaches to the Mississippi River, a significant change from the multi-jurisdictional, place-based approaches. Hooray!

The mayors’ progress in getting Mississippi River caucuses launched in congress is a major first step and commendable as well. Their Memo of Common Purpose with the Corps is a second great step to that end. I was pleased and gratified to have had the chance to attend this conference and see this progress first hand.

Still, there is an unaddressed component needed to successfully create and establish a framework for unified approaches to the Mississippi. That essential component rests with the public’s willingness to support a whole Mississippi River management approach, a considerable challenge for any water system let alone that of America’s waterway.

This is where A National Dialogue for the Future of the Mississippi River presents a unique opportunity. We know from history and the study of social change that public support is more effectively gained when the key stakeholders buy into the change. We know that the commitment to seeing that change happen comes when stakeholders see first-hand they have something to gain if the change happens. That’s why the World Wildlife Fund sees stakeholder involvement from across a watershed as essential to integrated river management policy. And the EU Water Framework Directive states, “In getting our waters clean, the role of citizens and citizens’ groups will be crucial.” The Mississippi River and its watershed need the same.

Momentum is building. We should continue to hold meetings of organizations and leading Mississippi River stakeholders. But it’s time to consider how to include the public in the process. Those organizations involved in the increased river collaboration should consider the ways they can build sustainability into their collaborative outcomes, whether its health indicators for the watershed, compacts for the sake of the Delta or multi-jurisdiction agreements on accessibility.

A National Dialogue for the Future of America’s Waterway goes beyond stakeholder input to stakeholder action. The AmericaSpeaks’ process imbedded in the Dialogue – face-to-face, multi-location, real-time – provides for whole Mississippi River civic engagement that not only creates a shared vision and framework for integrated river decision making, it builds stakeholder commitment. Furthermore, a National Dialogue could go a long way toward elevating the Mississippi River status as our national waterway throughout the country, thereby expanding public support beyond the River and the Watershed.

It’s an opportune time to include this capacity-building effort as a component in talks throughout the river valley. Without it, proposed approaches may be difficult to achieve and likely impossible to sustain.

Posted in Culture and History, Economic, Environment, Future of the Mississippi River | Tagged America's Waterway, EU Water Framework Directive, Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, National Dialogue for the Future of America's Waterway, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, WWF Keys to Effective River Basin Management | Leave a comment

Great News for the Mississippi River at Mayor’s Meeting

Posted on June 25, 2013 by unifythemississippi

Great News: Over fifty mayors from Mississippi River cities and towns have landed a Memorandum of Common Purpose with the Corps of Engineers. Announcing this on Thursday, June 27 at a St. Cloud, Minn. meeting of Mississippi River Cities and Town mayors, the agreement provides that the two – the mayors and Corps — will work together on common river sustainability issues. It’s a step in the direction of unified approaches to America’s great river.

But what does sustainability look like and what will it take to achieve it? Once there, who will continue to ensure that measures put in place remain the right ones and make necessary changes to fit new river basin understandings? Sustainability isn’t stagnant. Indeed, like the river itself, it ebbs, flows, meanders and gets applied in new and different ways by its human residents.

For the mayors and the Corps the first step is agreeing to cooperate. They have many topics in which they share common interests: navigation, agriculture, water infrastructure, recreation, tourism, economic development and jobs. Their agreement sets the precedent for increased cooperation on several fronts and has the potential – because it carries the weight of so many elected officials with their own constituencies – to form the basis for more uniform approaches to America’s great waterway.

The outcomes of this collaboration will need support of their own though. And how does the Mississippi River build a constituency that has a stake in river-wide issues, too. It takes more than organizations and elected officials to address the challenges of integrated river management on a scale as large and diverse as the Mississippi River. It takes public agreement and support for unified approaches.

That’s where the second part of the St. Cloud meeting comes in. Labeled on the agenda as “Partnerships for the River – Mayors Create a Convergence Point”, speakers from the America’s Wetland Foundation and America’s Watershed Initiative will lead the discussion.

Within this framework, America’s Waterway offers a unique vehicle for building that public support as well as river-wide capacity to instill sustainability culturally, economically and socially. Our proposed National Dialogue for the Future of the Mississippi River, as produced by America’s premier deliberative decision-making organization – AmericaSpeaks – provides that vehicle for sustainability of a river as vast and important to the nation as the Mississippi. Our web-based community will make it possible for that constituency to have a place to live and interact on behalf of America’s great river in the future as well as the present. America’s Waterway is a concept that serves the 21^st Century needs of the Mississippi, and we stand ready to join with others to ensure that America’s river gains sustainability in this millennium and into the future.

Posted in Culture and History, Economic, Environment, Future of the Mississippi River | Tagged A 21st Century Approach to the Mississippi River, A National Dialogue for the Future of America's Waterway, America's Waterway, AmericaSpeaks, Mississippi River, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers | Leave a comment

Mississippi River Commission Should Engage with the Whole River

Posted on April 8, 2013 by unifythemississippi

As the sun grows warmer and the Mississippi River Commission prepares for its annual high-water inspection trip, we continue, as a country, to ponder the Mississippi River and how such a large and valuable water resource should be managed. Complicating the management issue is the role the Mississippi River plays in our economy, communities and collective cultural understanding.

This is why the Mississippi River Commission, since it was charged with overseeing the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project in 1928, has had among its duties semi-annual inspection trips to observe flood control mechanisms and to hear from the public and key stakeholders. The goal of these sessions is to maintain dialogue and “exchange viewpoints and ideas flowing between the public and the Corps.” This year’s meetings will be held in Cape Girardeau, Memphis, Natchez and Baton Rouge during the week of April 8.

Since their inception, these meetings have taken the form of public hearings. They’ve also, out of early 20^th century necessity, been conducted with a river boat or barge traveling from location to location, collecting the concerns one city or port at a time. While the public comments are collected and published, there isn’t a mandate to do anything with them. At the time this plan was put into place, 1928, this was the best method available.

But that’s no longer the case. Technology and a growing body of knowledge about stakeholder engagement are supplanting the public hearing process. With the ability to simulcast and the tools to have representation of all interests concurrently engaged, the Mississippi River Commission needs to move in the direction of holding a whole-river dialogue.

What does a whole-river dialogue offer the Mississippi River that public hearings don’t? Using the Principles of Engagement agreed to by dozens of professional public engagement organizations, a National Dialogue ensures inclusive, informed and whole-river-focused conversation. Same-day, key-pad-assisted polling delivers a comprehensive picture of priorities and preferences of the different River sections. A focus on the future, instead of reviewing past conflicts, allows engagement in a vision-oriented context. Perhaps, most important, a whole-river dialogue would enable the Mississippi River Commission to find consensus for integrated management options based on the Mississippi as America’s great river system.

River experts now know that decisions about water management must address river basins as systems and include their economic and cultural aspects, as well. Today, science can monitor and model the whole river. Health indicators, water quality data, and economic impacts can be uniformly collected. International river professionals advocate the management of rivers as systems since it’s been proven that practices in one portion of a river affect other portions, especially downstream. Nowhere is this more evident in the U.S. than in the Mississippi River watershed.

Meanwhile, the issues of the Mississippi River grow in their complexity. Are spillways viable management tools? Are wing dams? Should development and farming continue to take place in floodplains? What should the order of priority be when considering the River’s management? Of course we say the protection of life. But when danger isn’t eminent, whose life gets protected: commerce, agriculture or fishing, the flyways for waterfowl, the security of native fish, people living upstream or down? These, and many other factors, are part of today’s river system management discussion. A whole-river discussion could inform the Corps’ decision-making beyond one location or one particular engineering solution at a time.

So, if ways to overcome local differences and build whole-river or whole-watershed approaches exist, what’s holding us back? Habits, for one thing. Organizational inertia for another. It will take a sea-change to abandon public hearings, budgets and crisis as a way to make policy for the Mississippi River. But it’s possible to change the process of gathering public input and achieve a more holistic outcome. While there’s expense involved in insuring representative, river-wide input, it pales in comparison to building even a small dam. And the end product stands a better chance of including consensus not conflict.

So as the Mississippi River Commission makes this year’s annual high-water inspection trip, turn out for their meetings and give them your views about security and safety on the Mississippi River in your community. But also urge them to take advantage of communication technology and newer forms of stakeholder engagement for the good of the whole Mississippi River. They needn’t be held back any longer by the physical limitations of traveling to only a few places. And they could more effectively address their long-term value – to maintain an exchange of ideas flowing between themselves and the public.

Posted in Future of the Mississippi River | Tagged A National Dialogue for the Future of America's Waterway, Mississippi River and Tributaries Project of 1928, Mississippi River Commission, Principles of Public Engagement, World Wildlife Fund Integrated River Basin Management | Leave a comment

Mississippi River System vs. Subway System

Posted on April 4, 2013 by unifythemississippi

Last week, while trekking around New York City, I was reminded of this graphic developed a couple of years ago by a clever and enterprising designer. He created a number of these images for iconic –non-train-related – subjects as a kind of ruse and way to get us to think differently than the status quo.

As I rode the subway last weekend, I couldn’t help thinking about the things we take for granted in subways and how different that is for a river, and especially the Mississippi.

As this map depicts, subways take the whole system into account. They’re designed and administered as systems. While the engineers who drive the trains only care about their line, a whole team of people looks at the whole system every day and oversees its interrelated functioning.

The Mississippi River, on the other hand, is managed according to its geographic sections. These sections, more often than not, were developed based on how long it took to ride or drive to a central point. Or they may have developed based on state and city boundaries already in place without regard to the nature of the river. They most certainly didn’t result from a common vision for how the river was to be sustained for a multitude of purposes.

The other difference is that the Mississippi River is overseen by a multitude of interests: clean water interests, economic and community development interests, transportation, wildlife habitat, etc. If asked, you’d say, but subways only have to perform one function so they can be addressed as a system. However, in addition to providing transportation, subway systems have to comply with air and water regulations, they have community development purposes, whole neighborhoods’ economic well-being relies on their operation. Not so different from the Mississippi River after all.

So the next time you take a train or stand beside the Mississippi River, think about the image above. I hope it will remind you that it is possible to approach America’s great waterway as a system and take all its important elements into account. What’s really standing in the way isn’t complexity or geography any more. It’s more a matter of political will.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Four New Year’s Resolutions for the Mississippi River

Posted on January 3, 2013 by unifythemississippi

This January, it seems to be the fashion to disparage new year’s resolutions. Having said that, where would we be if we didn’t make efforts – resolutions – from time to time to get things done? This year is a fitting year –not withstanding resolution disparagement trends – to take stock and make at least four resolutions for the Mississippi River.

Resolution #1: Avoid Mississippi River decision making on a location-specific basis and without a whole-River framework. Make this the year that we actualize what we know about the science of rivers-as-water-systems and apply it to America’s great waterway.

Resolution #2: Adopt new technologies for Mississippi River decision making and leave behind the entrapments of the “usual suspects” and the expense of meetings where participants hear from “experts” but don’t get to take any action. Technological teamwork tools exist and it’s time to put them to use.

Resolution #3: Ensure that all stakeholders and voices are accounted for when making decisions about the Mississippi River. After all, the Mississippi is America’s river – economically, ecologically and culturally – and plans for its future need to incorporate the various interests or they won’t be lasting or effective. How is this possible? Take a look at the work of AmericaSpeaks, the country’s foremost convener of 21^st century town meetings® that invariably build agreement around action plans. Their process is the basis for our National Dialogue for the Future of America’s Waterway.

Resolution #4: Focus on the future and don’t rehash the past. The past is where ill will resides. Allowing it into the discussion of a future plan reminds participants of fatal failures. Focusing on the future allows creativity, enables more parties’ participation in the discussion, and makes exploration of real solutions possible, regardless of regional considerations.

As we head into 2013, expectations for collaboration have been raised throughout the watershed. Climate change and other forces have wreaked havoc on the river for two years in a row. The political system in Washington looks less and less capable of taking on large decisions on its own. And, several organizations have recognized the necessity of balancing competing economic, ecological and cultural priorities in any plan for the River or its watershed.

Perhaps the research of Stephen Shapiro, author of “Goal-Free Living” and Opinion Research Corp., combined with the wit of www.thepessimist.com, summed it up best: “45% of Americans usually make New Year’s Resolutions, yet only 8% achieve their goals. 38% of Americans refuse to make any resolutions and are 100% successful at achieving the goals they refused to set.”

Posted in Future of the Mississippi River | Tagged A 21st Century Approach to the Mississippi River, America's Waterway, AmericaSpeaks, Nationa, River Network | Leave a comment

The River’s Ready for Civic Engagement… Are You?

Posted on September 6, 2012 by unifythemississippi

AmericaSpeaks’ keypads at tables in multiple locations enable integrated visioning and planning on a scale to match the Mississippi River.

The rules for gaining public support for an idea, cause or product have changed dramatically. Just ask chief marketing officers for Fortune 500 companies, candidates for public office and non-profit directors. These changes have important implications for integrated approaches to watersheds, especially big ones like the Mississippi River.

We all know we increasingly rely on our iPhones and iPads for communication and for entertainment. But the world of collaboration software is expanding rapidly, too, and it’s making a difference to international business as well as urban planning, transportation scheduling and economic development. Not surprisingly, technology development is coinciding with dramatic changes in expectations for decision making. Those expectations are being addressed in software for collaboration, deliberation and creative problem solving to address large scale and complex issues. It’s an opportune moment to pull these developments together for a vision and inclusive stakeholder collaboration for the future of the Mississippi River watershed.

First, the increasing use of technology – not just social networking – to problem solve, to collaborate across large geographic tracts and to integrate widely disparate and complex areas of expertise makes integrating disciplines and geographic sectors possible. The economies of technology for collaboration are increasingly attractive, too, especially in an era of low budgets and complex issues. Some examples of well-known software include Huddle, Microsoft SharePoint, Scribe and Do.com. Many lesser known software tools are emerging rapidly to address more specific collaboration needs. And, of course, the rapid rise in phone app use adds to this trend.

Second, expectations for public decision making are changing. Some of this may be due to technology driving public awareness. Or perhaps it’s due to, as Tom Friedman says, the world becoming increasingly flat. Regardless, people expect their communities, corporations and, even their churches, to be more transparent, inclusive and responsive to their needs. They expect schools and teachers to inform them and include their input into curriculum, sports and social events. People working in corporations expect to work in teams to decide product design and, even pricing, not just be told to execute the plan. And, yes, this trend is being seen throughout the world where decades-long dictators are being overthrown – or threatened – through accessible, public on-line organizing.

Third, apply what we know from research about people’s willingness to commit and act on behalf of an idea or a cause if they engage in deliberative decision-making. Xavier de Souza Briggs, MIT, in his book Democracy as Problem Solving, explains that collective, democratic decision-making has the ability to go beyond understanding issues to building constituency and the capacity of that constituency to make necessary change happen. He differentiates traditional concepts of democracy that pertain to whom we elect and how we steer government from democracy today that’s more focused on a collective search for better and less self-interest-driven bargaining. A number of organizations now exist creating standards and putting these practices into play: National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation www.ncdd.org and the International Association of Public Participation www.iap2usa.org are two of the leaders.

Enter technology- aided deliberative democracy as a 21^st century approach to reaching a shared vision and an integrated river management system for the Mississippi River watershed.

What we’ve had since the early 20^th century is a Mississippi River management plan based on the knowledge and technical expertise of that era. It was also based on an early 20^th century America – less urban and more rural, more agricultural, and less densely populated. Then the plan morphed according to the needs of specific interests at specific river locations. As time went on and the science of water quality developed, fish and wildlife expertise developed, economies of different regions developed, more variations were added. That’s why today we have a hodge-podge and multitude of governing authorities each with differing objectives and measurements for success.

What is needed today is a way to integrate all of the knowledge and science, public and private interests, economic and social concerns for the river to form an integrated and sustainable river system. The technology and new deliberative decision-making processes allow us to include the myriad of Mississippi River stakeholders on a scale and at a level of complexity that matches America’s great watershed. And, they provide us with a way to meet the World Wildlife Fund’s criteria for Integrated River Basin Management:

A long-term vision for the river basin, agreed to by all the major stakeholders
Integration of policies, decisions and costs across sectoral interests such as industry, agriculture, urban development, navigation, fisheries management and conservation, including poverty reduction strategies
Strategic decision-making at the river basin scale to guide action at sub-basin and local levels
Effective timing, taking advantage of opportunities as they arise while within a strategic framework
Active participation by all relevant stakeholders in well-informed and transparent planning and decision making
Adequate investment by governments, the private sector, and civil society organizations in capacity for river basin planning and participation processes
A solid foundation of knowledge of the river basin and the natural and socio-economic forces that influence it

The social and technological tools already exist for a 21^st century planning process for a unified vision and management plan for the Mississippi River. It goes beyond calling meetings, launching one-way communications campaigns, and only addressing the usual suspects. As stakeholders in the Mississippi River, we need only look outside our traditions and professional perspectives and test some of the new tools and processes. We also need to open the process to ALL stakeholders and adhere to the 7 Core Principles of Public Engagement http://tiny.cc/dvvtiw to ensure trust and effectiveness. It’s an enormous watershed system and America’s great waterway, but we have what is needed to address it in an integrated, sustainable and unified way.

Posted in Future of the Mississippi River | Tagged A 21st Century Approach to the Mississippi River, A National Dialogue for the Future of America's Waterway, America's Waterway, AmericaSpeaks, Mississippi River | Leave a comment