Integration of democratic and scientific aspect in decision-making system for facility siting with environmental risks.

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It is difficult to proceed siting of various kind of facilities, which may cause environmental and accidental risks, including nuclear power stations and hazardous waste disposal facilities. In addition to physical and social characteristics of such facilities, increase of awareness of local residents towards environmental protection and local governance may be a factor for recent situation. After surveying for a typical case of facility siting, the author conducted questionnaire survey in two areas. Where an industrial waste disposal facility has constructed in one area, environmental dispute is still continued in the other area. After collecting information about siting projects and decision-making processes of these two cases, the author tried to make clear of similarities and differences between the two cases. Afterwards, the author conducted in-depth survey for chemical facilities as actual cases of risk communication process. While researches on risk communication are gradually i … More ncreasing, few studies show actual conditions on site-based communication process among stakeholders such as private companies, local governments and the public. Through a survey on 27 tools of communication implemented by chemical and hazardous waste disposal facilities, we try to make clear of the differences of standpoints towards environmental risks among stakeholders. A field study found the following points. Companies try to communicate with the public through various types of channels, although communication style is still in transitional stage from one-way to two-way communication. Community-based environmental organizations provide opportunity of discussion among stakeholders, and daily activities increase effectiveness on information exchange in emergency stage. To promote more effective communication, the following are required : improvement of information dissemination measures, resolution of perception gap among residents, and development of supporting system so as to foster leadership towards better communication. In the last part, the author examined feasibility of more democratic process for waste disposal facility siting in Nagano Prefecture Less