Making decisions about how and where to invest limited
resources is always difficult, especially with a group of diverse stakeholders.
It’s more difficult when, as in the case of infrastructure like bridges, sea
walls, and sewer systems, the effects of the decisions can extend out for
decades, even centuries. And it’s more difficult still when future conditions
are subject to what I discussed in a previous post as “deep uncertainty.”
Deep uncertainty involves two basic conditions. First, the
models we use to anticipate future conditions produce a wide range of scenarios
of equal (or indeterminate) likelihood.