[1] At the end of the Drought Study, Shared vision planning had three basic elements: (1) an updated version of the systems approach to water resources management developed during the Harvard Water Program; (2) an approach to public involvement called "Circles of Influence"; and (3) collaboratively built computer models of the system to be managed.
Alternative dispute resolution methods are often used to bring people in conflict to the table, and to resolve differences that occur during planning.
Harvard's conceptual ideas were practiced and refined by a team led by Harry Schwarz in the North Atlantic Regional Study, a Federal water study instigated by President Lyndon B. Johnson after an historic drought in the Northeast led New York City to stop releasing water from its reservoirs into the Delaware River.
The lessons learned in the North Atlantic Study were later encoded in the Federal "Principles and Standards for Planning Water and Related Land Resources" (1973) often shortened to "the P&S".
The "Circles of Influence" method of public involvement was developed by Robert Waldman during the National Drought Study and modified traditional Federal approaches.
Accordingly, "Circles of Influence" management agencies participate in forums already being used by stakeholders, such as city water advisory boards or boating groups.
More than ten years earlier, Palmer had been doing post-doctorate work from Johns Hopkins University at the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB).
[2] ICPRB was one of several government organizations developing reservoir projects to address water supply needs in the Washington Metropolitan area.
Dan Sheer, who was working at ICPRB labeled this technique "computer aided negotiation" and has been using it since then in river basin studies around the world.
Decision scaling was developed by Casey Brown, based on the idea that planners should determine whether any plausible future climate could cause failures to meet system objectives.
The method was considered by academics and stakeholders in Sao Paulo during the recent drought, but, as predicted by the answers to the triage questions, it was rejected.
Many iEMSs members have developed approaches similar to shared vision planning without any apparent awareness of the Corps' work, which is perhaps a testament to its soundness.
[5] Conference participants agreed that the basic methods of shared vision planning were slowly becoming part of the mainstream in water resources management but that the process could be accelerated if a common name and community identity could be applied to all the various permutations on the approach.