Resilience Of Social-ecological Systems Research Articles

How social-ecological systems resilience unfolds from distinct worldviews

Resilience is a critically important factor to consider for sustainably managing natural resources and social-ecological systems (SESs). Each social system will, collectively, have its own goals for how resources are perceived and the principles that underpin their resilience, and, multiple actors, individually, will approach the question with different perspectives. Here, we represent these plural perspectives in terms of worldviews, using the typologies from cultural theory. We combined the underpinning resilience principles from a previously built SES model to assess the extent to which these worldviews influence the results. Resilience was measured using a prototype Dynamic Resilience Index (DRI) validated in a previous publication. The results show the resilience of our SESs will behave in three different ways depending on each worldview used. Free markets (individualists) start the simulation period with a higher resilience. Strong governance (hierarchy) will take a higher position around 2025 and maintain the best value to the end of the simulation in 2100. The precautionary principle (egalitarians) starts with the lowest values for the DRI but ends closer to the strong governance, and it is the only worldview that increased its resilience throughout the simulation. Each worldview couples better to a particular management approach, and the SES behavior responds accordingly. The relevance for the governance of the SES is great as each worldview brings flawed contributions to resilience and wellbeing. Our research also shows that a possible negotiated solution between these worldviews would locate resilience inside the “solution space,” which is graphically determined and discussed. Adopting each worldview is then discussed in terms of contributions and problems they imply to the system's resilience.

Enhancing sustainability: Exploring the evolution and dynamics of the grassland social-ecological system in Inner Mongolia over the past 260a

Understanding the intricate relationship between social-ecological systems (SES) coupling and long-term regional sustainable development is critical for effective management strategies. While recent research has predominantly focused on human-earth coupling, there is a dearth of knowledge concerning the transition of grassland SES from one regime to another and the underlying drivers. This study employs a comprehensive SES framework to identify and analyze interactions within typical pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia, aiming to shed light on the evolution of the grassland SES over the past centuries. Our research defines five distinct evolutionary phases in the grassland SES since the mid-Qing Dynasty. Each phase is characterized by unique social and ecological features, providing a nuanced understanding of the system's dynamics. We establish empirical links between the phases and their driving forces and impacts by assessing the main changes between these periods. Specifically, our findings reveal instances of negative cross-scale effects emerging during the evolution process. We observe that unreasonable resource utilization and an inability to curb ecological degradation may lead to unsustainable traps, posing challenges to long-term sustainability. To illustrate, during the transition from Phase 3 to Phase 4 in the late 19th century, a shift towards sedentary pastoralism led to increased land degradation due to intensified grazing practices. This unsustainable trajectory highlights the importance of adaptive management strategies to mitigate such negative consequences. This study contributes insights into the social and ecological management of grassland pastoral areas in China and for global analogous regions. By addressing the identified phases and their associated challenges, our research provides a foundation for crafting sustainable policies and practices to ensure the resilience of grassland SES in diverse geographical contexts.

Building stewardship capacity through fishers’ knowledge and advocacy in fisheries management: a case study from Southeast Alaska

Local environmental stewardship supports resilience of social-ecological systems through a wide range of actions that benefit both environmental and human wellbeing. Stewardship actions of harvesters have been recognized as an important component in building adaptive capacity of coastal fisheries undergoing change. In Southeast Alaska, where commercial fishing plays a key role in cultures and economies, concerns for local fisheries have arisen from declines in salmon returns, high price variability, and barriers to participation, among other issues. Here, we aimed to understand existing and potential pathways for stewardship actions of small-boat commercial fishers in Juneau, Alaska. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 commercial fishers, agency staff, and leaders of seafood associations to document fisher-led stewardship actions and ways that small-boat commercial fishers engage formally and informally with local management, explore the role of fishery management agencies in facilitating collaboration and communication with fishers in the Juneau area, and understand local perspectives on how the stewardship capacities of the fishery system can be better supported. We found that multiple pathways for stewardship exist in commercial salmon and shellfish fisheries, including formal and informal interactions with state fishery management staff and decision-makers, participation in fishing associations and advocacy organizations, knowledge sharing among fishers, and taking personal conservation actions to care for fisheries. We identified areas of relatively low social, financial, and institutional capital that may limit the effectiveness of these stewardship actions. Our findings highlight diverse perspectives of fishery participants on how these stewardship actions might be better supported through policy, advocacy, and collaboration.

Flood-resilient and inclusive futures: Integrating community, governance and ecology

Various parts of the Davao region, particularly in Davao del Norte, have recently experienced severe flooding and landslides caused by prolonged heavy rainfall due to the shear line weather system and a low-pressure area. The aftermath has led to significant displacement, disruptions in transportation networks, and loss of homes and lives. The response requires a collective effort from local authorities, NGOs, private sectors, and affected communities, focusing on well-equipped evacuation centers, meeting basic needs, and sustainable design principles. Safeguarding vulnerable populations, including women, children, and senior citizens, is emphasized, requiring tailored assistance and inclusive decision-making processes. Regenerative solutions beyond temporary relief, resilient infrastructure, and sustainable urban planning are imperative to address long-term challenges. Flood management is a comprehensive, multi-sectoral, and integrated approach, involving community participation, collaborative governance, and application of ecological principles. A holistic understanding of the nexus between human societies and the environment is crucial for fostering resilient social-ecological systems, encompassing coping mechanisms, adaptive strategies, and transformative capacities to thrive amidst the dynamics of nature.

Exploring social-ecological system resilience in South China Karst: Quantification, interaction and policy implication

China’s Grain to Green Program (GTGP), which is one of the largest payments for ecosystem services (PES) in the world, has made significant ecological improvements to the environment. However, current understanding of its outcomes on the social-ecological system (SES) remains limited. Therefore, taking the South China Karst as an example, a SES resilience evaluation index system was constructed followed by an exploratory spatial analysis, root mean square error, and Self-Organizing Feature Map to clarify the spatiotemporal changes and relationship of SES resilience, achieve the zoning of SES resilience and provide restoration measures. The results showed an upward trend in social resilience from 2000 to 2020, especially its subsystem of social development. Regional ecological resilience was stable, owing to a slightly declined ecosystem services and increased landscape pattern. Spatially, nearly half of the counties exhibited a distribution mismatch in SES resilience. There was an obvious inverted U-shaped relationship of SES resilience, indicating a clear threshold effect, and the constraint relationship of SES resilience eased over time, demonstrating the effectiveness of the ecological restoration program. GTGP played a positive role in reducing regional SES trade-off, but this positive effect was limited, reflecting the limitations of overemphasizing the conversion from farmland to forest and grassland. Regional SES resilience can be divided into four clusters, which were the key optimization zone for social system, the SES resilience safety zone, the key restoration zone for SES resilience, and the key optimization zone for ecological system. Adaptive adjustments for the GTGP in these zones should be taken to achieve maximum SES benefits in the future.

Keeping up with the landscapes: promoting resilience in dynamic social-ecological systems

Keeping up with the landscapes: promoting resilience in dynamic social-ecological systems

“Seeing power” between young people and conservation professionals in the design of a community-based watershed monitoring initiative

ABSTRACT Background Community-based monitoring provides a forum for diverse stakeholders to co-construct knowledge relevant to building social-ecological resilience. However, power asymmetries between these actors can privilege the perspectives of dominant groups, while preventing non-dominant perspectives from informing conservation science. Methods This study investigates a workshop series intended to support young people in designing a watershed monitoring initiative rooted in their own interests with respect to a large dam removal in their community. We use interaction analysis to examine whose ideas are taken up in discussions among young people, educators, conservation professionals, and education researchers. Findings Power dynamics that privilege the contributions of credentialed professionals over those of young people can constrain collective learning processes while simultaneously generating tensions that allow for expansive learning to occur. Facilitation practices and other pedagogical moves play an important role in either further entrenching or disrupting hierarchies between youth and community partners. Contribution Our analysis reveals how careful attention to interactional dynamics—both as a research method and as a pedagogical practice—can make visible and disrupt epistemic hierarchies in multi-stakeholder learning environments. Problematizing these hierarchies can help broaden the perspectives from which knowledge is generated, a necessary endeavor in building resilient social-ecological systems.

Assessing collaboration, knowledge exchange, and stakeholder agency in coastal governance to enhance climate resilience

Coastal governance plays a central role in building the capacities for adaptation and transformation towards climate resilience in coastal social-ecological systems (SES). However, enhancing climate resilience requires effective coordination between organisations involved in coastal governance. Therefore, more information about the role and agency of organisations and the relationships between them is needed. This paper aims to improve the understanding of collaboration, knowledge exchange, and stakeholder agency for enhancing climate resilience in coastal SES, using a case study in Algoa Bay, South Africa. We apply and combine stakeholder analysis and social network analysis, which is currently underrepresented in climate change adaptation research. Results suggest that different top-down and bottom-up processes are needed to improve knowledge exchange and enhance climate resilience in the coastal governance of the Algoa Bay SES. These include improved leadership, effective knowledge transfer, integration of climate information, support for bridging organisations, and inclusivity of marginalised stakeholders. These suggestions may also be more broadly applicable and transferable to similar coastal SES. Ultimately, the results of this study shed light on network structures in coastal governance facing climate change and advance research on combining stakeholder analysis and social network analysis in climate change adaptation and environmental governance research.

Transmission of knowledge and social learning for disaster risk reduction and building resilience: A Delphi study

AbstractThe UN Sendai Framework recognized the need for making our communities safer and more resilient to disasters by shifting policy goals from “managing disasters” to disaster risk reduction (DRR) and building resilience. For DRR and building community resilience to disaster shocks, this study posits that social learning, a process of mutual development and sharing knowledge through iterative reflections on experience, is key to changing the conventional linear logic‐based, reactive framework into one based on learning‐by‐doing (adaptive management). Toward this end, a three‐round Policy Delphi process was pursued with a combination of 18 international DRR and SES (social–ecological systems) resilience scholars, practitioners, and public officials. Weak policy frameworks; operational, cultural and educational/training silos; and domination of technical knowledge were identified as major challenges in knowledge and learning transmission. Balancing technical knowledge with social science, and working toward transdisciplinary approaches and transformative practices should, therefore, be nurtured.

Describing complex interactions of social-ecological systems for tipping point assessments: an analytical framework

Humans play an interconnecting role in social-ecological systems (SES), they are part of these systems and act as agents of their destruction and regulation. This study aims to provide an analytical framework, which combines the concept of SES with the concept of tipping dynamics. As a result, we propose an analytical framework describing relevant dynamics and feedbacks within SES based on two matrixes: the “tipping matrix” and the “cross-impact matrix.” We take the Southwestern Amazon as an example for tropical regions at large and apply the proposed analytical framework to identify key underlying sub-systems within the study region: the soil ecosystem, the household livelihood system, the regional social system, and the regional climate system, which are interconnected through a network of feedbacks. We consider these sub-systems as tipping elements (TE), which when put under stress, can cross a tipping point (TP), resulting in a qualitative and potentially irreversible change of the respective TE. By systematically assessing linkages and feedbacks within and between TEs, our proposed analytical framework can provide an entry point for empirically assessing tipping point dynamics such as “tipping cascades,” which means that the crossing of a TP in one TE may force the tipping of another TE. Policy implications: The proposed joint description of the structure and dynamics within and across SES in respect to characteristics of tipping point dynamics promotes a better understanding of human-nature interactions and critical linkages within regional SES that may be used for effectively informing and directing empirical tipping point assessments, monitoring or intervention purposes. Thereby, the framework can inform policy-making for enhancing the resilience of regional SES.

Enduring tensions between scientific outputs and science learning in citizen science

Citizen science has been lauded for its promise and potential to simultaneously advance both the scientific enterprise as well as science education. Oftentimes, however, citizen science projects struggle to balance these dual goals and negotiate the tensions that arise between them. Many of these enduring tensions center on the tradeoffs involved between producing high quality data while also maintaining engaging learning experiences for volunteers. In this article, we present a case study of how a community-based organization navigated these tensions in the context of a multi-stakeholder, collaborative monitoring program that featured citizen science as part of a broader watershed restoration effort. Specifically, we describe how project organizers responded to tensions in their citizen science initiative by creating a tiered system for volunteer participation. This system aimed to produce high-quality data to inform watershed management as well as a suite of science learning opportunities for volunteers in ways aligned with their respective interests and goals. Ultimately, we suggest that such a system can support multiple pathways for building healthy and resilient social-ecological systems by potentially broadening the knowledge sources and perspectives from which conservation decisions are made.

Opportunities for and barriers to anticipatory governance of two lake social–ecological systems in Germany and Canada

Abstract Climate change effects are already being felt around the globe, and governance systems need to adapt to this new reality to foster greater resilience in social–ecological systems (SES). Anticipatory governance is a concept proposed for such a purpose. However, its definition remains rather vague in the literature, as is its practical use for decision makers. In this paper, we contribute to filling these two shortcomings. First, we conducted a systematic literature review of the concept and derived the following main criteria: foresight, networked engagement, integration and feedback. Second, we use the identified criteria to analyse two social–ecological systems around lakes in Lower Saxony, Germany and in Quebec, Canada. In both cases, data were generated using a participatory approach (interviews and workshops) with local stakeholders. We examined these data, identifying opportunities and barriers to anticipatory governance. Our findings support, with empirical data for the first time, the claim in the literature that ensemble‐ization—the fact that all anticipatory governance criteria must be put forward jointly and not in isolation—is a facilitator for the emergence of anticipation. Furthermore, by highlighting opportunities and barriers to anticipatory governance within two temperate lake SES cases, we illustrate how to understand a given system's limitations with respect to anticipatory governance, as well as how to engage with the concept through concrete, already existing opportunities. The proposed course of actions could help design more anticipatory governance systems to support decision‐making processes that could enhance SES resilience. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Panarchy theory for convergence.

Coping with surprise and uncertainty resulting from the emergence of undesired and unexpected novelty or the sudden reorganization of systems at multiple spatiotemporal scales requires both a scientific process that can incorporate diverse expertise and viewpoints, and a scientific framework that can account for the structure and dynamics of interacting social-ecological systems (SES) and the inherent uncertainty of what might emerge in the future. We argue that combining a convergence scientific process with a panarchy framework provides a pathway for improving our understanding of, and response to, emergence. Emergent phenomena are often unexpected (e.g., pandemics, regime shifts) and can be highly disruptive, so can pose a significant challenge to the development of sustainable and resilient SES. Convergence science is a new approach promoted by the U.S. National Science Foundation for tackling complex problems confronting humanity through the integration of multiple perspectives, expertise, methods, tools, and analytical approaches. Panarchy theory is a framework useful for studying emergence, because it characterizes complex systems of people and nature as dynamically organized and structured within and across scales of space and time. It accounts for the fundamental tenets of complex systems and explicitly grapples with emergence, including the emergence of novelty, and the emergent property of social-ecological resilience. We provide an overview of panarchy, convergence science, and emergence. We discuss the significant data and methodological challenges of using panarchy in a convergence approach to address emergent phenomena, as well as state-of-the-art methods for overcoming them. We present two examples that would benefit from such an approach: climate change and its impacts on social-ecological systems, and the relationships between infectious disease and social-ecological systems.

Towards a Social-Ecological-Entropy Perspective of Sustainable Exploitation of Natural Resources

An innovative and integrative modeling strategy for assessing the sustainability and resilience of social-ecological systems (SES) is presented by introducing a social-ecological entropy production (SEEP) method. In analogy to the thermodynamic entropy production of irreversible processes, we discuss a theoretical model that relates energy and information flow with the cultural and epistemological peculiarities of different communities that exploit the same natural resource. One of the innovative aspects of our approach comes from the fact that sustainability is assessed by a single parameter (SEEP) incorporating the simulation outcomes of all the populations participating in the dynamics, and not only on the fate of the resource. This is significant as far as the non-linearities introduced by the coupling of the different dynamics considered may lead to high sensitivity to small perturbations. Specifically, by assuming two possible types of technical and environmental knowledge-transfer methods [direct (D) and phase-in (P)] within each one of the two communities that exploit and restore a resource, we generate four mathematical models to explore the long-term sustainability scenario due to the intervention, by a new epistemological community, of an initially sustainable resource-community SES. By exploring the space of four key parameters characterizing the degree of technical and environmental knowledge, as well as the rates of social inclusion and knowledge transfer, our simulations show that, from 400 scenarios studied in each case, the P-P model predicts 100% sustainable cases in the use of the resource after the intervention by the second community. The mixed scenarios P-D and D-P predict about 29%, and the D-D scenario only predicts 23% of sustainable cases. Catastrophic outcomes are predicted at about 71% in P-D and D-P scenarios, and about 77% of extinction of the system by exhaustion of the resource and community populations in the D-D scenario. In this form, our theoretical strategy and the knowledge-transfer scenarios studied may help policymakers to find a priori science-based criteria to solve possible controversies arising from social-ecological interventions.

Contribution of Home Gardens to Sustainable Development: Perspectives from A Supported Opinion Essay.

Home gardening has a long history that started when humans became sedentary, being traditionally considered an accessible source of food and medicinal plants to treat common illnesses. With trends towards urbanization and industrialization, particularly in the post-World War II period, the importance of home gardens as important spaces for growing food and medicinal plants reduced and they began to be increasingly seen as decorative and leisure spaces. However, the growing awareness of the negative impacts of agricultural intensification and urbanization for human health, food quality, ecosystem resilience, and biodiversity conservation motivated the emergence of new approaches concerning home gardens. Societies began to question the potential of nearby green infrastructures to human wellbeing, food provisioning, and the conservation of traditional varieties, as well as providers of important services, such as ecological corridors for wild species and carbon sinks. In this context. and to foster adaptive and resilient social–ecological systems, our supported viewpoint intends to be more than an exhaustive set of perceptions, but a reflection of ideas about the important contribution of home gardens to sustainable development. We envision these humble spaces strengthening social and ecological components, by providing a set of diversified and intermingled goods and services for an increasingly urban population.

Snapshots of Nature-Based Recreation Across Rural Landscapes: Insights from Geotagged Photographs in the Northeastern United States.

Nature-based recreation is of increasing economic importance to rural communities transitioning away from traditional natural resource extraction. Rural areas are rich in cultural ecosystem services (CES) that function as essential public goods, providing benefits to livelihoods and fostering conservation of large landscapes. Geotagged photographs from social media platforms capture detailed information on public use of natural areas that can be useful for stakeholders interested in promoting resilient social-ecological systems, but applications of such "big data" are often limited in either spatiotemporal or thematic scope. We integrated multiple aspects of crowdsourced image data to better understand human-environment interactions, focusing on the Northern Forest, a culturally and ecologically significant region of the northeastern United States. Images for the region were mined from Flickr, a crowdsourcing image platform, from 2012 to 2017 and assigned themes via a neural network-cluster analysis pipeline while geographic drivers of nature-based visitor engagement were assessed with random forest models to predict use of CES across the Northern Forest. Daily and seasonal patterns in photography were broadly consistent throughout the region, whereas annual photography trends were more variable. Eleven core themes were identified in images, with 70% of photographs depicting activities related to CES. Visitor engagement with nature was greater near roads and shorelines, and at higher elevations, reflecting tensions between accessibility and aesthetics for recreation. Automated image classification tools can rapidly extract relevant information from crowdsourced photography for exploring human-environment interactions, but researchers should consider multiple spatial and temporal scales in CES assessments of large social-ecological systems.

Mechanism analysis of ecosystem services (ES) changes under the proposed supply-demand framework: A case study of Jiangsu Province, China

Characterizing the structure, process, and function of ecosystems, ecosystem services (ES) closely impacts human well-being. It is significant to reveal the complex pathways of factors driving ES based on the supply–demand framework to supplement knowledge about ES change. Therefore, A conceptual framework of ES change from the supply–demand perspective was constructed first. Then, the structural equation model (SEM) method was employed to reveal the mechanism of ES changes driven by socioeconomic and natural ecological factors and to measure their direct and indirect effects. The main findings are: The social and economic factors indirectly affect ES, with effects of −0.549 and −0.154, respectively, from the demand side. Natural conditions, as the supply-side factors, directly and indirectly affect ES, with effects of 4.342 and −1.721. Land use directly acts on ES from the supply side as an intermediary that links the socioeconomic factors and natural conditions, with a direct effect of −2.735. The effect sizes of drivers on different ES are different, however generally conform to the proposed mechanism framework. This study follows the theory of Coupled Human and Natural Systems and contributes to the construction of resilient social-ecological system.

Leveraging Governance Performance to Enhance Climate Resilience

AbstractEnhancing the resilience of complex social‐ecological systems (SES) to climate change requires transformative changes. Yet, there are knowledge gaps on how best to achieve transformation. In this study, we present an approach for assessing governance performance in SES and identifying leverage points to ultimately enhance climate resilience. The approach combines three different methods including a capital approach framework, fuzzy cognitive mapping, and a leverage points analysis. Using a coastal case‐study in Algoa Bay, South Africa, the performance of governance processes contributing to different forms of capital is assessed. Subsequently, leverage points ‐ where a small shift may lead to transformative changes in the system as a whole ‐ are identified based on measures of centrality and performance. Results suggest that a range of leverage points can improve governance performance and therefore climate resilience in the case‐study. Leverage points include improving (a) support from the provincial government; (b) priority given to climate change in the integrated development plan; (c) frequency of collaborations; (d) participation in the implementation of climate action plans; (e) allocation of funding to climate change actions; (f) the overall level of preparedness in terms of staff with relevant expertise; (g) public awareness and understanding of climate change. The approach can also be used to analyze and model the relations and interactions between capitals. The study advances methodological and theoretical knowledge on the identification of leverage points for enabling transformations toward climate resilience and broader sustainability goals in SES.

Social network analysis of a landscape-scale conservation initiative in South Africa

Assessment of social relations, including social network analysis, is central to understanding collaborative processes for environmental decision-making and action. The capacity of network role players to learn and adapt appropriately to uncertainty and change is a critical determinant of the resilience of socialecological systems. Poor social network structure can predispose failure. In this study, we used social network analysis to explore learning capacity and network resilience in a multi-authority conservation initiative on the West Coast of South Africa (Dassenberg Coastal Catchment Partnership). Our analysis focused on structural variables for network learning and resilience, namely connectivity, heterogeneity, and centrality. The governance network was found to be structurally connected, with the interaction between heterogeneous organisations and sectors, and centralised around a core group of actors. The network had good structural features to enable learning. However, the high level of centrality, and dependence on a small number of core actors, rendered the network potentially vulnerable to dealing with complex challenges. We recommend that core actors (1) reflect on their core functions and whether the network can absorb these functions if they were to leave and (2) tap into the knowledge potential of actors on the network periphery or invite new actors to the network when dealing with complex challenges. This may require the network to diverge into decentralised subgroups to deal with complex issues. We further suggest that the Dassenberg Coastal Catchment Partnership network incorporate social network research with qualitative monitoring into a long-term plan to monitor the movement and influence of actors as the initiative evolves. Significance: This study illustrates how social network analysis can help researchers, public-sector organisations, and donor agencies to monitor the structural features of governance networks that enable or disable learning and resilience within landscape-scale conservation initiatives. Our results illustrate how social network analysis can assist public-sector actors to reflect on their roles and whether there is redundant competency within the network to maintain its resilience.

The inclusion of fisheries and tourism in marine protected areas to support conservation in Indonesia

With the rapid growth of Indonesia’s marine protected area (MPAs) estate in Indonesia, reaching 23.9 million hectares by January 2020, attention needs to be focused on strengthening the effectiveness of MPA management. Consolidating and expanding protection of Indonesia’s marine resources is critical with increasing pressure from a fast-expanding population, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, pollution, coastal development, unsustainable tourism and climate change. Biodiversity conservation must therefore concurrently consider multiple economic sectors such as fisheries and tourism, and their synergies with MPA management. This paper aims to outline the current landscape of fisheries and marine tourism pertaining to area-based conservation in Indonesia, to inform and support improved integration into effective MPA management. Four areas to focus efforts were identified: diversification of governance types of community-based management, improved coordination between fisheries and MPAs during planning and management implementation, the development and support of pathways for sustainable tourism, and planning for future conditions. Sustainable development for fisheries and tourism must be incorporated into all aspects of MPA management, whilst recognising that current management systems are insufficient to ensure long-term sustainability for natural resources and local communities, and strategies need to increase resilience of social-ecological systems in anticipation of future conditions.