ID: 2232
Presenting Author: Stéphanie Beauregard
Session: 523 - Public participation in IA follow-up for ongoing communication and providing sound information
Status: pending
AI-enabled participation transforms impact assessments from static reports into collective decision-making processes, strengthening governance, transparency, and the implementation of study recommenda
For decades, social and environmental impact assessments have too often ended as static reports—valuable in analysis, but limited in influence. Practitioners face a persistent challenge: how to translate complex assessments into actionable, shared decision-making processes. Today, digital participation tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are redefining this paradigm, turning assessments into dynamic platforms for governance, collaboration, and accountability.
This presentation explores how innovations such as Cocoriko—a civic engagement platform integrating AI-driven data synthesis and participatory design—support practitioners in bridging the gap between analysis and decision. By capturing, structuring, and visualizing public input in real time, such tools empower stakeholders to understand trade-offs, co-create mitigation strategies, and monitor the implementation of recommendations beyond the study phase.
AI-enhanced analysis enables practitioners to uncover emerging themes, identify areas of consensus or concern, and provide decision-makers with a clear, evidence-based narrative. The result is a living governance ecosystem where communities, experts, and proponents collectively shape project outcomes.
Rather than producing reports that sit on a shelf, these new participatory technologies transform impact assessment into a continuous learning and decision-support process—transparent, inclusive, and adaptive to the social realities it seeks to understand.
Stéphanie Beauregard has 15 years’ experience in public participation, leading hundreds of online engagement projects that help communities and decision-makers build transparent, inclusive processes.