Preface: Drought, Risk Management, and Policy: Decision-Making under Uncertainty

The relationship between science—and indeed all forms of expertise—and policy development has been the subject of a wide range of research from the science and technology studies tradition, which is strongly sociological in orientation, to the knowledge utilisation literature associated with policy sciences/public policy. Science/policy relationships can be problematic, particularly in democracies where policy making is somewhat of a balancing act between competing societal values. In open and competitive policy communities, much to the frustration of some scientists, expert advice is only one voice around the policy table and often is not decisive in the decision-making process. Yet aspirations to bring order and evidence to policy processes persist, so as Harold Lasswell (1951, 3) asked over 60 years ago, What are the most promising methods of gathering facts and interpreting their significance for policy? How can facts and interpretations be made effective in the decision-making process itself?