The analytical approaches used to develop and evaluate policies at the water-use planning sites are intended to provide insight to decisionmakers and to help stakeholders structure their thinking and deliberations. These objectives are fundamentally different from those of evaluation approaches favored by many economists, which seek to provide a number for inclusion as part of a benefit-cost framework, but typically provide little guidance to participants in thinking through conflicting values, balancing the pros and cons of multiple alternatives, or seeking information to assess consequences. In this article, the authors discuss decision analysis techniques, which encourage the expression of a diversity of interests and objectives, rather than seek a consensus-based middle ground. They believe that the clear expression of these differences provides the value-focused building blocks for creating broadly acceptable and enduring management plans.