Abstract
Factors that constitute resilience can themselves change over time in social-ecological systems. This poses a major challenge for understanding resilience and suggests greater investigation is needed of how social-ecological systems evolve through time and how to manage along more resilient pathways given continuous change. Resilient pathways account for the changing context of social- ecological systems, such as changing management discourses and their societal inclusiveness, changing system boundaries and external connections, and lingering consequences of past management actions. In this paper I use two well-known conceptual frameworks to explore change in social-ecological systems and associated resilience in the case of water management in South Africa, which is undergoing a major transformation: (1) the conceptual framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) and (2) the adaptive cycle described by Holling and others. Both frameworks, with minor adaptations, illustrate the system's shift from a centralized command-and-control style bureaucracy to a decentralized system guided by new legislation and a vision to balance efficiency, equity, and sustainability. During the former era, water managers attempted to maintain system stability and productivity through institutional and technical means that favored certain sectors of society, but resilience of the water management system declined as a result of increasingly unpopular policies and loss of ecosystem services. In using both frameworks, it becomes clear that the water management system contains two distinct social subsystems, representing South Africa's previously advantaged and disadvantaged populations, and that these do not progress through the phases of the MA framework and adaptive cycle uniformly. This implies particular challenges for achieving the water management vision: (1) the potential for management discourses to be manipulated by powerful groups, (2) equity issues that reflect new system boundaries that extend beyond South Africa's borders, and (3) past overallocation and poor management of water that make the previous level of privileges unattainable today. The South African water sector is a compelling case because of its dramatic transformation with as-yet unknown outcomes, but it presents challenges that are common among many large-scale social-ecological systems. With great international interest in operationalizing resilience definitions and frameworks, this exercise suggests the need to revisit definitions, continue applying these frameworks, and adapting them to capture variations in social-ecological systems.
Highlights
The success of management regimes for social-ecological systems (Berkes et al 2003) is seen to hinge on the maintenance or enhancement of resilience (Allison and Hobbs 2004, Ludwig and Stafford-Smith 2005)
Resilience concepts have begun to emerge in current South African water policy and research, but largely in a superficial context
The frameworks illustrate reasonably well the water management system far, interesting questions are raised as to whether the system will continue to pass through the phases described by the frameworks, and if not, how and why will it deviate? This analysis further highlights the challenge of assessing and enhancing resilience of largescale systems, in which distinct subpopulations follow different trajectories, or follow the same trajectory at different speeds
Summary
The need to understand resilience as it relates to water management systems is recognized as critically important (Falkenmark 2003, Folke 2003, Moench 2005), and South Africa is a interesting case, as its water sector is undergoing a significant transformation and striving to implement new water legislation supported by a mutual vision (MacKay et al 2003) Both frameworks are to some extent already informing water policy and policy-relevant research in South Africa (see Palmer 1999, Rogers and Biggs 1999, Rogers et al 2000, Turton and Henwood 2002, Biggs and Rogers 2003, Nel et al 2004, Turton et al 2005, King and Brown 2006) though mostly in a piecemeal and ad-hoc rather than an integrated fashion, and the opportunity to bring resilience theory to bear on water management remains strong. I explore the two frameworks and how they may help define resilient pathways for achieving South Africa’s overarching water management vision
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
