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Measuring resilience in a Pacific herring social-ecological system
Sep 26, 2019 |
New: VIDEO ABSTRACT describes a paper from Anne Salomon and colleagues that advances a method to quantify resilience based on theoretical principles. |
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VIDEO ABSTRACT
Putting resilience into practice has been limited by the availability of tools that are directly linked to theory. In a recent paper published in Ecology & Society "Measuring social-ecological resilience reveals opportunities for transforming environmental governance", Anne Salomon and colleagues describe a method in which seven principles of resilience are translated into ecological and social metrics specific to a coupled human-ocean system on the northwest coast of Canada. Expert knowledge was used to assess how the metrics changed over time through three sequential governance periods.
Pacific herring have been harvested and traded by indigenous people in Canada for thousands of years. Yet, the future of herring and traditional harvest practices are directly tied to the resilience of the entire social-ecological system, including its capacity to adapt and transform in response to changing ocean conditions, social values, international markets and shifting governance practices.
Salomon and colleagues found a significant decline in system-wide resilience but also more recent signs of recovery that suggest the potential for transformation in Canadian fisheries governance. The quantitative approach to assessing resilience in this system allowed the researchers to pinpoint the erosion and recovery of specific system attributes and shed light on strategic pathways for enabling transformation of the Pacific herring system toward a more ecologically sustainable and social just future.
Reference:
Salomon, A. K., A. E. Quinlan, G. H. Pang, D. K. Okamoto, and L. Vazquez-Vera. 2019. Measuring social-ecological resilience reveals opportunities for transforming environmental governance. Ecology and Society24(3):16.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11044-240316
Photo credit: I. McAllister
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The Passing of a Polymath; in memory of Buzz Holling
Aug 23, 2019 |
C.S. 'Buzz' Holling passed away on August 16 2019. He lived a remarkable life of creativity, discovery, scholarship and service to humanity. |
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"the only way to approach such a period -- where uncertainty is very large and one cannot predict what the future holds - is not to predict, but to act inventively and exuberantly in diverse, adventures in living and experiment." CS Holling
C.S. 'Buzz' Holling passed away on August 16 2019. He lived a remarkable life of creativity, discovery, scholarship and service to humanity. He was a rare combination of artist, scientist, teacher and practitioner who touched and inspired many colleagues. One of his talents was an ability to bring people together to understand, assess and act on new solutions to complex problems of people and nature. Indeed, the Resilience Alliance was one of his 'experiments', set up as a flexible, nimble institution that would bring scientists, academics and practitioners together as a crucible for creating novel solutions that would contribute to sustainable futures for people and the planet. Since the RA and the scholarly journal Ecology and Society would not be here without Buzz, we hope to honor and memorialize his passing with a short (and inadequate) tribute to his life and many contributions.
The image above, shows Buzz touching a sculpture by his friend and colleague Lee Gass. The piece is a three-dimensional depiction of Buzz's adaptive cycle. The RA logo is a stylized depiction of the same heuristic or mental model which was derived from integrating and simplifying decades of ecosystem research. While appearing as an infinity or continuous loop, these representations stylize the abstract concepts of phases, discontinuities, non-linearities imbedded in the model. At the heart of the model is an overly simplified representation of systems (ecological, biological, social and biophysical) that change in different ways. In the model, change occurs as systems go through distinct periods or phases. First is growth and development of structure, capital and ideas. Over time the system becomes senescent and vulnerable to external influences, resulting in periods of destructive creation followed quickly by renewal into a new or different system. Buzz's life was indeed a series of adaptive cycles, as indicated by his memoir (Bubbles and Spirals).
Crawford Stanley Holling was born on December 6, 1930 in Elmira New York. He spent his formative years in Toronto and Ontario, where he collected bugs, watched birds and honed his naturalist's skills. His preferred name of Buzz was given to him by his older sister (short form of Buzzer) and it stuck through his life. Indeed, he insisted on being called Buzz throughout his life. He earned a BA and MSc at the University of Toronto in 1952. He traveled west and earned a PhD at the University of British Columbia in 1957. He began his career as a forest entomologist in the Canadian Dept. of Forestry in Ontario, where he built upon his PhD work on predator-prey interactions. Buzz was Professor and Director of the Institute of Animal Resource Ecology at UBC. He was the Director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria, before assuming a position as an Eminent Scholar, holding the Arthur R. Marshall Jr. Chair in Ecological Sciences in the Dept. of Zoology at the University of Florida. He retired from the University of Florida in 2000 but remained active as an Emeritus Scholar.
Buzz received many national and international awards over his professional career. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in Animal Biology in 1970. He received two honorary Doctor of Science degrees; one from the University of Guelph (1998), and another from UBC (2007). He was foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and was also awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Arts and Science. The Ecological Society of America bestowed the Mercer Award in 1966 and an Eminent Ecologist Award in 1999. In 2008 he received the Volvo Environmental Prize.
A few years ago, as he was facing declining health, I shared an adage with Buzz: 'Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it is called the present'. I think there are three reasons why this resonated with him. One is that I don't think he liked to reminisce and talk about the past, yet saw the value in applying historical information to recognize and explain patterns of change. Buzz embraced the uncertainty of the future, as indicated by his recognition of inherent complexity and unpredictability of the future, now manifest in the manifold resilience programs and the adoption of adaptive management throughout the world. Over the arc of his life, his leadership, friendship, support and ideas were gifts to those of us who were lucky enough to work with him. As we are now in the second or third generation of resilience scientists and practitioners, this provides us with the hope that his intellectual legacy will survive for years to come.
-Lance Gunderson
See also Stockholm Resilience Centre's Obituary: Pioneering the science of surprise
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McGill University Ph.D. student Marianne Falardeau's short film documents future scenarios in the Arctic
Apr 25, 2019 |
Filmed in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, "Hivunikhavut - Our Future" shows how participatory scenarios developed with local residents can be used to explore future change. |
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As part of her Ph.D. research at McGill University, Marianne Falardeau produced a short film based on her work in the Kitimeot region of Canada's Arctic. Titled "Hivunikhavut - Our Future", the film presents a participatory scenario project that explored the future of the Kitikmeot Marine Region of Nunavut by 2050. Along with her colleagues Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne and Elena Bennett, Marianne designed and facilitated a participatory scenario exercise in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut in 2017 and 2018. The short film features workshop participants and their reflections on the process of creating scenarios as a way of exploring and shaping future changes in the region.
An outreach report documents the scenario work, presenting three scenarios developed by workshop participants and discusses how the scenarios might be used in the future to help bring about desirable outcomes.
The short film can be found here: https://youtu.be/ch7mW9eUqms
Trailer here:https://youtu.be/swaNn034Kjs
Report and an executive summary:
http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/R/-?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=162490&silo_library=GEN01
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Social-ecological change in the Omo-Turkana basin: A synthesis of current developments
Apr 24, 2019 |
Jennifer Hodbod and Edward G.J. Stevenson along with co-authors synthesize impacts of the Gibe III dam and large-scale commercial farming in Ethiopia using a social-ecological systems and political ecology framework. |
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Drawing upon the work of a multi-disciplinary network of researchers focused on the Omo-Turkana basin in Ethiopia, lead authors Hodbod and Stevenson describe early and potential future impacts of the Gibe III dam on surrounding communities and ecosystems in Ethiopia and Kenya. Using an ecosystem services framework the authors disaggregate impacts among different groups of people to illustrate which groups benefit and which groups bear the majority of the costs of development in the area. Published in Ambio, the review offers an integrated perspective on social-ecological change that combines a systems approach with a political ecology framework.
Citation:
Hodbod, J. E.G.J. Stevenson, G. Akall, T. Akuja, I.A. Bedasso, L. Buffavand, S. Derbyshire, I. Eulenberger, N. Gownaris, B. Kamski, A. Kurew, M. Lukuruka, M.F. Mulugeta, D. Okenwa, C. Rodgers, E. Tebbs. 2019. Social-ecological change in the Imo-Turkana basin: A synthesis of current developments. Ambio https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1139-3
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Social-Ecological Systems Research can inform Monitoring of SDGs
Apr 02, 2019 |
Monitoring the SDGs is necessary to track progress towards achieving sustainable outcomes. A recent paper by Selomane, Reyers, Biggs, and Hamann suggests ways that SDG monitoring can better take into account systems dynamics and complexity by drawing on insights from SES research. |
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Odirilwe Selomane and colleagues analyzed the SDGs in relation to five key features of social-ecological systems: social-ecological feedbacks, resilience, heterogeneity, nonlinearity, and cross-scale dynamics. They discover that while the SDGs were designed with a systems approach in mind, the indicators used to monitor the SDGs fall short of fully engaging with complex adaptive systems concepts and insights. They contend that SES research can inform the future development of monitoring progress towards achieving the SDGs.
Two challenges highlighted by Selomane et al. are that firstly, monitoring micro-level components or properties may miss important interactions that give rise to emergent behaviour at a macro level. Secondly, a "systems" approach is not the same as a "complex adaptive systems" approach. The latter involves key features mentioned above, that can help inform a more integrated approach to SDG monitoring that accounts for system dynamics and complexity in ways that are relevant to sustainability outcomes.
Selomane, O., B. Reyers, R. Biggs, and M. Hamann 2019. Harnessing Insights from Social-Ecological Systems Research for Monitoring Sustainable Development. Sustainability 11, 1190; doi:10.3390/su11041190
Link to paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/4/1190
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A resilience framework for the Great Green Wall Initiative
Mar 15, 2019 |
Deborah Goffner, Hanna Sinare and Line Gordon present a resilience-focused, transdisciplinary framework for the Great Green Wall in the Sahel. |
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Having evolved from a massive scale tree-planting and reforestation initiative into a more modular approach that combines a variety of landscape-scale actions that are tuned to their local context, the Great Green Wall could be a game changer for the Sahel, according to Goffner and her colleagues. They describe how previous actions that took a broad scale, simplified approach to greening the Sahel, fell short of achieving their goals and how a resilience framework that integrates past, present and future social-ecological systems and the bundles of ecosystem services they provide, can help with identifying and coordinating strategic actions to create resilient Sahelian landscapes.
Read the full paper here.
Goffner, D., H. Sinare, and L.J. Gordon. The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative as an opportunity to enhance resilience in Sahelian landscapes and livelihoods. Regional Environmental Change. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-019-01481-z
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Literature on the resilience of complex systems is complex
Mar 13, 2019 |
Steven Lade and Garry Peterson comment on a recent literature review that found the literature on resilience of complex systems to be highly compartmentalized. |
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In their letter to the editor, researchers Steven Lade and Garry Peterson demonstrate how search terms and disciplinary blinders can skew results when looking across fields at the literature on the resilience of complex systems.
With the variety of ways in which researchers in different disciplines describe, define, and conceptualize resilience and complex systems, it appears that a comprehensive literature search demands a variety of terms be included in the search. In response to a narrow search on ISI Web of Knowledge that limited the selection of literature on the topic, Lade and Peterson show how key papers can be excluded thus giving an incomplete picture on the state of science.
Read the full letter to the editor here.
Lade, L.J. and G.D. Peterson. 2019. Comment on "Resilience of Complex Systems: State of the Art and Directions for Future Research". Complexity. Article ID 6343545. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/63435445.
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Wayfinder is a new generation of resilience assessment and planning for development practitioners
Sep 11, 2018 |
Wayfinder - A resilience guide for navigating toward sustainable futures will have an official launch on September 12, 2018 at 11:00 Stockholm (CET). livestream: https://buff.ly/2MieGqB |
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Wayfinder is a flagship initiative of the Sida funded programme, GRAID. Learn more at wayfinder.earth and follow the launch livestream via the Stockholm Resilience Center facebook page: https://buff.ly/2MieGqB
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New Book! Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance
Jun 11, 2018 |
Editors Barbara Cosens and Lance Gunderson bring together the latest thinking on the links between law and social-ecological resilience. Published by Springer, the book presents results and insights from an interdisciplinary project exploring law, policy, and ecological dimensions of governance in American and Australian regional water systems. |
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Contributing authors are at the forefront of a new and growing area of research linking law to social-ecological resilience and applying resilience as a bridging concept. Eighteen chapters cover a range of perspectives on factors enabling or constraining adaptive water governance and detailed historical assessment of six water basins in the U.S. yield insights into cross-scale interactions.
Visit the publisher's website for more information and to download a product flyer or purchase a copy of the book: https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319724706.
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Navigating the New Arctic
Mar 20, 2018 |
Navigating the new Arctic is a series of NSF funded workshops led by Craig Allen, Hannah Birge and Martha Shulski. The first meeting was held March 13-15, 2018 in Fairbanks Alaska. |
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A number of RA members are participating in this series of workshops that is designed to explore the theme of convergence as it relates to what is being called The New Arctic, reflecting the complex dynamics and rapid changes underway in the Arctic. The first workshop brought together a diverse group of participants contributing their expertise in the areas of biogeochemistry, economics, traditional knowledge, complex adaptive systems, and resilience.
The workshop focused on six themes that span a variety of perspectives and disciplines including: Arctic resilience to global-scale drivers, Indigenous traditional knowedge, biogeochemical cycling, spatial regimes, agroecosystem mid-latitude linkages, and new tools for convergence.
The United States' National Science Foundation (NSF) funds work addressing grand challenges within science and engineering. Through its "Growing Convergent Research" portfolio , NSF highlights the value of Convergence, i.e., "the deep integration of multiple disciplines in order to ad- vance scientific discovery and innovation."
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