SMEC Australia recognises the fact that effective community involvement is increasingly central to successful project outcomes and has, over recent years, built a substantial skill and resource base in this area.  Our in-house skills and capability in community involvement encompass:

Development of community involvement plans Identification of key stakeholders and the establishment of constructive dialogue Utilising community involvement as a risk management tool

• Community input fora (Information days, charettes, workshops, public meetings)

• Environmental mediation and dispute resolution

• Facilitation of input by indigenous groups and native title holders

• General land holder involvement and negotiation

• Public facilitation activities

The successful implementation of these activities not only assists in ensuring a successful project, but will usually enhance risk management and project control, provide more options for problem resolution, build trust and goodwill and meet the reasonable expectations of local communities for input to local infrastructure decision making.

 The great majority of our projects incorporate community involvement components and our in-house resources encompass a senior environmental mediator (listed by the Chief Judge of the NSW Land & Environment Court) and two senior sociologists with substantial experience in community involvement activities.