CPCX Celebrates Second Birthday

The Corps Conflict Resolution and Public Participation Center (CPCX) celebrated its second birthday on November 18th, 2010. Designated as a Center of Expertise and Directory of Expertise by MG Riley, CPCX's mission is to help Corps staff anticipate, prevent, and manage water conflicts, ensuring that the interests of the public are addressed in Corps decision making. CPCX has made a significant impact since it was established two years ago. During the past fiscal year, the Center provided technical assistance to Districts and Divisions on collaborative processes, completed a baseline assessment of USACE collaborative capacity, released several reports on environmental conflict resolution and collaborative processes, and launched a Public Participation and Risk Communication Community of Practice (CoP).

CPCX begins FY2011 with even greater resolve to develop and expand the application of effective processes and tools for public engagement, collaboration, and conflict resolution. By focusing on its five goals of consultation services, capacity building, information exchange, policy support, and research, the Center of Expertise contributes to both Goal 2 and 4 of the USACE Campaign Plan. CPCX works to “deliver enduring and essential water resource solutions through collaboration with partners and stakeholders”(Objective 2b) and “communicate strategically and transparently” (Objective 4b).

Highlights by CPCX's five goals are:

Consultation Services

• Supported Project Management and Planning leaders at HQ in the development and facilitation of a Continuing Authorities Program Summit for approximately 60 Corps personnel from all Divisions;
• Designed and facilitated a two-day inter agency technical working group meeting with USACE leadership for the Devils Lake Inter-Agency Initiative, which led to a draft report for The White House’s Office of Management and Budget.

Capacity Building

• Conducted workshops for the Collaborative Capacity Assessment Initiative at 5 Divisions and Headquarters;
• Conducted a week-long Shared Vision Planning workshop with stakeholders and the National Water Authority in the Chili River Basin, Arequipa Peru;
• Published “How to Conduct a Shared Vision Planning Process,” available at http://www.sharedvisionplanning.us/resReference.cfm.

Information Exchange

• Developed a Risk Communication & Public Participation (RCPP) Community of Practice SharePoint Site with 230+ new members, including a network of USACE facilitators from across Corps divisions and business lines;
• Hosted a webinar series, including environmental conflict resolution in USACE, the services and strategic plan of CPCX, and the RCPP CoP;
• Organized and led a presentation track on collaborative tools and processes, including SVP case studies, lessons learned, evaluation tools, and best practices at the Environmental Water Resources Institute annual congress in Providence, RI.

Policy Support

• Compiled and published the Annual Environmental Conflict Resolution Report, a report on the current status and cases of environmental conflict resolution in the Corps, for the Council on Environmental Quality;
• Developed and improved a framework and methods to encourage public involvement in selecting the appropriate flood risk management plan, documented in the draft report “Public Involvement Framework & Implementation Plan for Flood Risk Management,” for the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force Hurricane Protection Decision Chronology Implementation Team.

Research

• Convened a panel of experts from academia, the Corps, and other agencies to identify the challenges associated with communicating flood risk throughout the disaster cycle, and discussed principles and approaches for addressing these challenges that would inform future trainings of the National Flood Risk Management Program;
• Participated on the Environmental Conflict Resolution and Technology coordinating committee to identify best practices and create an awards program for the use of technology in
  environmental conflict resolution processes;
• Published “Analysis of Process Issues in Shared Vision Planning Cases” and “Performance Measures to Assess the Benefits of Shared Vision Planning and Other Collaborative Modeling Processes.”

Learn More:

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