Plenty of resources on public participation can be found on the Internet. Most of the sources listed below - just a few out of thousands - contain links to other sites related to this subject. We also recommend browsing the results of a search at www.google.com, applying search combinations such as "public participation river basin planning” or "public participation water framework directive”.

1. General sources on public participation

The following links are not directly related to PP in the water sector, but to general processes of PP in community development:
http://www.unece.org/env/pp The official website on the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters
http://www.rec.org/REC/Publications/PPManual/ Default.html The manual on public participation of the Regional Environmental Council.
http://www.worldbank.org/participation The Participation and Civic Engagement Group of the World Bank promotes methods and approaches that encourage stakeholders, especially the poor, to influence and share control over priority setting, policy making, resource allocations and access to public goods and services. Among other subjects, it provides a consultation sourcebook on civic engagement.
http://www.earthsummit2002.org/msp The Committee of the United Nations on Environment and Development (UNED) with its conferences in Rio de Janeiro (1992) and Johannesburg (2002) has compiled resources on effective stakeholder participation and maintains a stakeholder forum.

2. Public participation in the water sector

http://www.harmonicop.info/_files/_down/HarmoniCO Pinception.pdf The HarmoniCOP project of the European Commission aims to improve the conceptual base for participatory planning in river basin management. Their inception report provides an analytical framework to the subject with a clear distinction between different levels of PP – from information to collaborative planning.
http://www.panda.org/downloads/europe/wfd-cee.pdf and http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/wfdownership.pdf Two documents of the WWF on practical implementation of the Water Framework Directive.

http://www.gwp.ihe.nl/wwwroot/GwpORG/handler.cfm? event= home The Global Water Partnership Toolbox on Integrated Water Resource Management is a comprehensive source of knowledge, experience and guidance for sustainable water resources development and management including service provision. The ToolBox aims to help decision makers and practitioners to put together policy packages for sustainable water resources management. The ToolBox draws together experience and shares knowledge in implementing IWRM, worldwide.
http://www.eau2015-rhin-meuse.fr/en/directive/ consultation.php Some practical guidelines and experiences on PP in
the water sector from Rhine-Maas River Basin Commission.

http://www.mdbc.gov.au/whatson/mdbnr-comms.html On 13 -14 November 2001, the Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resource Communicators Conference was held in Canberra, Australia. Their website provides an overview of a specific, practical approach to PP.

3. Tools for public participation
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/sourcebook/sbhome.htm
The World Bank Sourcebook on Participation is one of the most comprehensive collections of tools and techniques for putting PP into practice. It can be downloaded as a PDF.

http://www.change-management-toolbook.com
A toolbox following the principles of "Learning Organizations”, which includes tools for vision sharing, for establishing a common ground between the stakeholders and for institutional analysis.
Over the past 20 years, many new tools have been developed to facilitate workshops that bring together large groups of diverse stakeholders and to empower the stakeholders to participate in the design, planning, implementation and evaluation of projects. These are the most popular tools, which have been tested and re-tested on numerous occasions in different organizational and cultural backgrounds:
Open Space Technology: http://www.openspaceworld.org: Open Space Technology was developed by Harrison Owen in the late seventies. It is the most radical approach to stakeholder participation. An Open Space workshop can be held with any number of participants, from 20 to 2000. The stakeholders themselves define their fields of interest and convene focus groups on self-selected topics.
Future Search Conferences: http://www.futuresearch.net: Future Search Conferences, developed by Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, is probably one of the best approaches for community-based planning. In a two-and-a-half-day workshop, 60-80 stakeholders from diverse groups establish a common ground and jointly develop projects for the future of their living environment.

Sustainable Food and Farming in the Connecticut River Valley, A Vision. A practical application of the Future Search approach which was conducted out in 1995 can be found at http://www.smsys.com/pub/cisa/toc.htm
Appreciative Inquiry: http://www.appreciative-inquiry.org and http://appreciativeinquiry.cwru.edu: Appreciative Inquiry (AI), developed by David Cooperrider and Diane Whitney, is an approach to positive change in organizations. It builds on the strengths of a community, an institution or a stakeholder group, revealing what positive examples of past activities can be applied to collaborative future planning.Holger Nauheimer
www.beraterkompetenz.de