Full document / COSOC-W-86-002 - the National Sea Grant Library

Estuarine and Coastal Management -Tools ofthe
Trade. Proceedings ofthe Tenth National Conference
of The CoastalSociety. October 12-15.1986. New
Orleans. LA, Copyright byThe Coastal Society
1987.
DEVELOPING A TECHNICAL PROGRAM TO SUPPORT
ESTUARINE MANAGEMENT: A COMPARISON OF
THREE NORTHEASTERN ESTUARIES
The Technical Advisory Process
Michael S. Connor
Batteue Ocean Sciences Technology Department
Duxbory.MA 02332
The design of mechanisms to promote effective transmission of outside
scientific advice to governmental decision makers has generated a number of
approaches (Robinson, 1980). Much of the emphasis has focused at the national
level; hovover technical advisory boards havo become a common feature of
governmental studies at the federal, regional, state, and local level. At the
national level alone, there vere more than 1,300 national advisory boards with
22,000 members in the mid-1970s (Spohn, 1983). Despite their widespread use
at all levels of government, very little is known about what mechanisms
maximize the most effective use of non-governmental scientists, nor, in fact,
have any criteria been developed to determine such effectiveness.
The role of scientists Is particularly troublesome because of the triad of
roles they serve as (1) arbiters of the technical feasibility of a project,
(2) a separate political constituency, and (3) potential contractors for the
work which needs to be done. Scientists are often asked to review the
technical morlts of a proposed project, although in polarized situations few
scientists are perceived as unbiased (Reich, 1983). In addition, the
scientists asked to evaluate a project's technical feasibility nay later be
contracted to perform the work. The participation of scientists in the "Star
Wars" debate is a recent example of these overlapping roles, where scientists
opposed to the political ramifications of the project have refused to seek
research funding while characterizing the program as technically unfeasible
(Smith, 198S).
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