Frame of Reference
The Frame of Reference approach provides a generic approach to value assessment and management. Key to the approach is to make important aspects of a management issue explicit to facilitate interaction between actors with different backgrounds. An important question is which elements should be made explicit as a minimum.
Based on an analysis of the successful Dutch ‘Dynamic Preservation’ policy for coastal sediment management, it was proposed that a ‘basic’ frame of reference should at least include:
- A strategic objective;
- An operational objective; and
- A decision recipe containing a foursome of elements, viz.:
- A quantitative state concept;
- A benchmarking procedure;
- An intervention procedure; and
- An evaluation procedure confronting the operational as well as the strategic objective.
