Social-ecological Systems Framework Research Articles

Advancing Water Sustainability in Megacities: Comparative Study of São Paulo and Delhi Using a Social-Ecological System Framework

In this paper, we frame the problem of urban water sustainability in megacities as a social-ecological system (SES) to examine the underlying coupling of social and ecological factors and processes. Based on our empirical research of two major megacities of the global south, São Paulo and Delhi, we have developed an urban water SES module within the broader SES framework proposed by Ostrom. The module’s multilevel nested structure consists of the following four subsystems: water resource and infrastructure, settlements, governance, and actors. A distinct advantage of our module is that it enables us to capture the plurality of settlements patterns (from formal to informal settlements), actor networks, and governance patterns found in cities of the global south and how these uniquely shape and are shaped by the process of rapid urbanization. We use this module as: (a) an analytical tool to identify the different variables and processes within each subsystem, which through their interactions, have influenced the trajectory of water systems in these cities; (b) a diagnostic tool in a comparative setting to examine why desired goals in terms of service delivery and/or governance were achieved (or not); and (c) a prescriptive tool to identify cross-learnings and practical lessons.

Collective action for water quality management in agriculture: The case of drinking water source protection in France

Nonpoint source pollution from agriculture represents a major threat to the quality of water in the European Union (EU) context. As part of the implementation process of the EU Water Framework Directive in France, the cooperation between water suppliers and agricultural stakeholders has been recently promoted for limiting diffuse agricultural pollution at the water catchment level. Based on a conceptual framework combining transaction cost economics and the social-ecological system (SES) framework, this paper identifies the conditions under which such collective action is effective for the restoration/maintenance of water quality. The research relies on a cross-case comparison of cooperation in six drinking water catchments. A qualitative analysis of primary data collected at the national, water basin and local levels serves as a basis for the multi-case investigation. Variables related to the hydrogeological system, the stakeholders involved, the contracts governing cooperation and the economic and policy contexts are shown to interact in their influence on collective action. The results highlight the importance of the match between contract incentives and the characteristics of the local context and the potential complementarities between informational, regulatory and economic policy tools for enhancing the effectiveness of collective action for water pollution control.

A Perspective on Social-Ecological System Framework And New Institutional Economics Theories in Explaining Public Open Spaces (Pos) Governance And Quality Issues

There has been relatively little attention paid to the implications of property-rights structures on urban and neighbourhood commons, particularly in respect to government/state-owned public open space (POS) governance, its management and its quality. By establishing interconnections of the property-rights structure with POS governance and its quality externalities, the theory of new institutional economics, the social-ecological system framework, as well as the social dilemma theory and the commons and opportunism concepts were employed and reviewed, to synthesise a conceptual framework which can help illuminate and explain the complex nexus of an institutional-social-POS system. Findings suggested that adversarial institutional design and arrangement (e.g., maladaptive property regime, incomplete rights, and attenuated rights) and change of the property-rights system, coupled with highly positive transaction cost distributions, contribute to inefficient POS governance and management, which consequently results in a suboptimal quality and sustainability of POS. This synthesis provides policy and management insights by making public officials aware of the importance of the institutional-social-ecological system, and by making them consider a re-engineering of the POS ownership regime and its management rights via an adaptive property-rights structure assessment and re-allocation.

Trends and gaps in scholarly literature on urban and peri-urban agriculture

In recent years urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) has gained increasing attention, while a comprehensive synthesis and identification of research gaps is lacking. The present review indicates that with a share of 27% of scholarly publications sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical region most often reported in scientific literature. Middle East and North Africa (MENA, 1.9%) and Oceania (2.8%) in contrast appeared underrepresented. Megacities (> 5 million inhabitants) received less scientific attention than smaller agglomerations. 3.6% of UPA publications addressed heavy metals, of which 82% detected a contamination in plants, soil or irrigation water above recommended thresholds, but the thereby bioavailability of heavy metals remains unclear. Organic pollutants in contrast seem to be understudied. 1.7% of the studies focused on microbial contamination in UPA and 9.7% addressed socio-economic aspects of urban agriculture. The latter are very context specific and span from supplementation of food in poor households to market-oriented production. Only 2% of studies explicitly dealt with animal husbandry in UPA. This topic should receive more scientific attention, since the integration of urban animal husbandry with cropping systems has large potential for recycling of nutrients. Similarly, only 2.4% of studies examined urban foodsheds and food supply, despite the challenge of ongoing urbanization, which requires increasing source areas for feeding cities. Maintaining ecosystems services in an urban environment that is highly competitive for scarce resources such as space, water, labour and capital requires an efficient resource management at different spatial scales. This calls for interdisciplinary research approaches in a social-ecological systems framework.

An interdisciplinary evaluation of community-based TURF-reserves.

Coastal marine ecosystems provide livelihoods for small-scale fishers and coastal communities around the world. Small-scale fisheries face great challenges since they are difficult to monitor, enforce, and manage, which may lead to overexploitation. Combining territorial use rights for fisheries (TURF) with no-take marine reserves to create TURF-reserves can improve the performance of small-scale fisheries by buffering fisheries from environmental variability and management errors, while ensuring that fishers reap the benefits of conservation investments. Since 2012, 18 old and new community-based Mexican TURF-reserves gained legal recognition thanks to a regulation passed in 2012; their effectiveness has not been formally evaluated. We combine causal inference techniques and the Social-Ecological Systems framework to provide a holistic evaluation of community-based TURF-reserves in three coastal communities in Mexico. We find that, overall, reserves have not yet achieved their stated goals of increasing the density of lobster and other benthic invertebrates, nor increasing lobster catches. A lack of clear ecological and socioeconomic effects likely results from a combination of factors. First, some of these reserves might be too young for the effects to show (reserves were 6–10 years old). Second, the reserves are not large enough to protect mobile species, like lobster. Third, variable and extreme oceanographic conditions have impacted harvested populations. Fourth, local fisheries are already well managed, and while reserves may protect populations within its boundaries, it is unlikely that reserves might have a detectable effect in catches. However, even small reserves are expected to provide benefits for sedentary invertebrates over longer time frames, with continued protection. These reserves may provide a foundation for establishing additional, larger marine reserves needed to effectively conserve mobile species.

Refining the Robustness of Social-Ecological Systems Framework for comparative analysis of coastal system adaptation to global change

There are numerous frameworks for studying the governance of shared resources that have been discussed extensively in the literature. Although these frameworks have been applied to multiple case studies, these applications are often idiosyncratic, subject to the interpretation of the researcher, and raise concerns regarding the operational use of frameworks for case-study comparisons. As a result, insights from these studies have not lived up to the aspirations of the frameworks to generate generalizable knowledge. Here, based on several case studies and our experience using various frameworks for analyzing social-ecological systems, we undertake the task of providing a mechanism to systematically qualify interactions among ecological, social, institutional, and built infrastructure systems that impact the governance of shared resources. Specifically, we generate a series of archetypal social-ecological systems and extract from them a verb list to represent key interactions in the Robustness of Coupled Infrastructure Systems Framework. We then extend and refine the list based on three case studies of coastal social-ecological systems. We categorize these verbs and use them to demonstrate governance patterns across the case studies. We find that governance entities predominantly seek control over paths of change directed at lower governance levels rather than acting at their own level. Governance entities shed responsibility to lower governance levels without providing necessary resources. Finally, we find high potential for the cancelation of efforts due to lack of coordination among governance entities. The set of system archetypes and associated verb list is a first step in laying the foundation for a general typology of and a standardized protocol for representing the dynamics of CIS.

Social-ecological dynamics and water stress in tourist islands: the case of Rhodes, Greece

Tourism increases, diversifies and concentrates water consumption in space and time; it contributes to social-ecological processes that often make tourist destinations vulnerable to water stress. Climate change projections foresee an increase in water stress problems in many tourist resorts. Tourist islands are particularly challenged due to their geographical isolation and the limited options for enhancing supply. Despite the significance of the problem, the understanding of the tourism and water–stress complex remains under-researched. In this article, we aim at a novel, integrated and spatiotemporally dynamic conceptualization of tourist islands’ vulnerability to water stress. To do this, we begin by presenting the “Water-Tourism Social-Ecological Systems framework” based on literature on water and tourism, social-ecological systems, adaptation, vulnerability, resilience, and island studies. We then apply this framework to investigate the so far underexplored vulnerability to water stress of the island of Rhodes (Greece). Results from in-depth interviews with key stakeholders along with secondary sources provide insights into the Rhodes Water-Tourism SES dynamics. Our analysis provides an interdisciplinary and multidimensional lens to the water-stress and -tourism complex. It enriches the literature of tourism and water and gives the opportunity to open up the scope of solutions that are being discussed.

Effects of Diverse Property Rights on Rural Neighbourhood Public Open Space (POS) Governance: Evidence from Sabah, Malaysia

There are severe issues of public open space (POS) underinvestment and overexploitation. However, few studies have been conducted on the property rights structure and its impacts on rural commons governance, specifically concerning local neighbourhood residential POS quality and sustainability. The social-ecological system framework and the new institutional economics theory were employed to examine the local diverse property rights system and its effects on the emergence of POS dilemmas. Rural commons covering neighbourhood residential Country Lease (CL) and Native Title (NT) POS from the districts of Kota Kinabalu and Penampang, Sabah Malaysia were selected. A mixed-method phenomenological case study, involving multi-stakeholders’ perspectives across public-private-user sectors, was employed. This study revealed four main interconnected property rights issues, including attenuated rights, incomplete rights, maladaptive rights, and security-based de facto perceptive rights, under the complex state-private regime, which incentivise the opportunistic behaviour of individuals in externalising POS commons dilemmas. The findings further inferred that the local diverse property rights issues and POS dilemmas caused, and are associated with, other rights issues and dilemmas, forming a rights-dilemmas nexus. Not only do the institutional failures actuate POS dilemmas, but the former also engender other forms of property rights failures, while the latter cause other POS dilemmas. This paper suggests policy and management insights to public officials, in which the importance of the institutional-social-POS behavioural factor and the re-engineering of POS governance via adaptive property rights realignment are emphasised.

Exploring human-nature interaction on the coastal floodplain in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta through the lens of Ostrom’s social-ecological systems framework

This study diagnoses temporal and spatial variations in the performance of different social-ecological systems (SES) in coastal floodplain management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. We go beyond common pool resource management problems and address the management of local public goods. In the assessment, we consider recent developments in the framework initially developed by Elinor Ostrom. The main variables of the framework that we use are resource systems, the environment, the governance system and actors. The focal SES is defined based on guiding questions relating to the definition of the key problem, system boundaries, and action situations. According to our results, the performance of resource systems and the environment deteriorated in 1960–79 compared to the performance prior to 1960. The condition reached a low point during 1980–1999 but improved slightly after 1999. The horizontal network structure of local governance was active until 1960. Due to the introduction of the ‘tidal river management’ approach in the 90 s, the performance of the resource system and the environment has slightly improved, as has the involvement of government and non-government organizations. Our results also show that overall SES performance is comparatively better <in the case of locally managed floodplains than it is for those managed by government agencies. Our new approaches, such as the recent development of the diagnostic framework, the guiding questions for defining focal SES, and application of the framework to local public goods can potentially be used in the fields of sustainability science and SES science. The qualitative performance of each of the selected indicators is useful for identifying intervention options to achieve a sustainable outcome for the coastal floodplain SES.

Do responsible fishing areas work? Comparing collective action challenges in three small-scale fisheries in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is supporting Marine Areas of Responsible Fishing (AMPRs) to enable small-scale fishing communities to apply for exclusive harvesting and management rights within spatially delimited areas under a co-management policy framework. Communities need to self-organize their own fishing association and develop a fishing management plan (POP) to apply. Seven AMPRs have been established in the Gulf of Nicoya, but many face collective action challenges to develop and achieve common goals and implementation. In this article, we conduct a qualitative comparative analysis by applying the Social-Ecological System Framework (SESF) as a tool to identify the social and ecological conditions influencing collective action and co-management in three AMPRs in the Gulf of Nicoya, and we compare the similarities and differences between them Our results show that all three AMPRs face collective action challenges for different reasons. Nonetheless, some commonalities exist. Common drivers motivating collective action include the desire to restrict certain types of fishing gears due to perceptions of resource scarcity and high dependence on local resources. Monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms, the presence of effective leadership and the economic heterogeneity of actors all positively influence collective action in two cases. However, in all three cases, there are more variables hindering collective action such as mistrust among actors, internal conflicts, non-rule compliance, lack of governmental support and resource unit mobility. Our findings suggest that AMPRs are a promising and potentially effective governance strategy because they can empower marginalized small-scale fishing communities and bring them into national development processes. However, there is an evident need for more state and local community investment into capacity building for self-organization and deliberation processes that can better enable the development of mutually accepted goals and implementation tools such as communication and enforcement strategies. Maintaining the perceptions among local communities that AMPRs are an acceptable and legitimate form of governance is a key challenge for continued collective action and achieving associated conservation goals. This research shows that adapting governance institutions to fit the social-ecological context of each AMPR is critical for success, despite the perceived similarity between the AMPRs.

Improving Representation of Human Well-Being and Cultural Importance in Conceptualizing the West Hawai‘i Ecosystem

Ecosystem-based management approaches are increasingly used to address the critical linkages between human and biophysical systems. Yet, many of the recently developed social-ecological systems (SES) frameworks neither represent the social and ecological aspects of the system in equal breadth or depth, nor do they adequately operationalize social dimensions. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s West Hawaiʻi Integrated Ecosystem Assessment, a program grounded in ecosystem-based management, recognizes the importance of place-based human dimensions in coastal and marine resource management that speak to a fuller range of social dimensions of ecosystem-based management. Previous work with stakeholders in West Hawaiʻi revealed significant SES dynamics and highlighted both the importance and lack of understanding of the links between ecosystem services and human well-being, particularly services that enhance and maintain cultural connections to a place. While cultural ecosystem services and human well-being are often recognized as important elements of SES, there have been substantial barriers to fully representing them, likely due to perceived difficulties of measuring intangible benefits and values, many which are socially constructed and subjective. This study examined SES frameworks related to cultural ecosystem services and human well-being to advance the representation and operationalization of important social aspects of SES in broad conceptual frameworks. We describe key insights and questions focused on: (1) points of inclusion for social elements in SES models, (2) culturally relevant domains of human well-being and related indicators, (3) the importance of place and its interaction with scale, and finally (4) the tension between a gestalt vs. discrete approach to modeling, assessing, and sustainably managing social-ecological systems.

A Social-Ecological System Framework for Marine Aquaculture Research

Aquaculture has been responsible for an impressive growth in the global supply of seafood. As of 2016, more than half of all global seafood production comes from aquaculture. To meet future global seafood demands, there is need and opportunity to expand marine aquaculture production in ways that are both socially and ecologically sustainable. This requires integrating biophysical, social, and engineering sciences. Such interdisciplinary research is difficult due to the complexity and multi-scale aspects of marine aquaculture and inherent challenges researchers face working across disciplines. To this end, we developed a framework based on Elinor Ostrom’s social–ecological system framework (SESF) to guide interdisciplinary research on marine aquaculture. We first present the framework and the social–ecological system variables relevant to research on marine aquaculture and then illustrate one application of this framework to interdisciplinary research underway in Maine, the largest producer of marine aquaculture products in the United States. We use the framework to compare oyster aquaculture in two study regions, with a focus on factors influencing the social and biophysical carrying capacity. We conclude that the flexibility provided by the SESF is well suited to inform interdisciplinary research on marine aquaculture, especially comparative, cross-case analysis.

Developing biocultural indicators for resource management

AbstractResource management and conservation interventions are increasingly embracing social–ecological systems (SES) concepts. While SES frameworks recognize the connectedness of humans and nature, many fail to acknowledge the complex role of sociocultural factors in influencing people's interactions with the environment. As such, when indicators in SES frameworks are used to measure the social dimension, easy to measure, socioeconomic indicators are the norms, while more complex social and cultural indicators are rare. To develop meaningful indicators of resilience in SES we need to understand local definitions of resilience. In this paper we describe methods used in a biocultural approach to illuminate sociocultural factors that Pacific Islanders identify as important for resilient communities. We focus specifically on two dimensions of sociocultural factors, “Connectedness to People and Place” and “Indigenous and local knowledges, skills, practices, values and worldviews,” which relate to many interventions, but are not usually monitored. We offer examples of indicators that may be appropriate to measure under these dimensions. Increased use of biocultural indicators will bring additional insight on the types and combinations of indicators that work best in given contexts.

Seeking sustainability: Employing Ostrom's SESF to explore spatial fit in Maine’s sea urchin fishery

Achieving resource sustainability in complex social-ecological systems requires employing place-based management mechanisms congruent with the underlying temporal, spatial, and functional dynamics of the system in question. However, matching management to system dynamics can prove extremely challenging, as has been illustrated in Maine’s sea urchin fishery where fishery managers have struggled to resolve management spatial scale mismatch for over two decades. In Maine, the spatial scale of management far exceeds the relevant spatial dynamics of the urchin resource and leaves fine-scale urchin aggregations in a de facto open access state. These conditions facilitated the serial overharvest of urchin aggregations and resulted in the substantial loss of viable urchin habitat as overharvested areas transitioned to kelp-dominated ecosystem states that inhibit urchin recruitment. Although fishery actors contemplated adopting a number of fine-scale management alternatives to enhance social-ecological fit in the fishery, to date, no such alternatives have been employed. We adopted an ethnographic research approach and conducted semi-structured key informant interviews, document analysis of archived meeting minutes, and participant observation at co-management meetings and restoration events to explore these dynamics from the fishery’s incipience to the present. Following data analysis, we employed Ostrom’s social-ecological systems framework as a diagnostic tool to identify the factors that have influenced management spatial fit in the urchin fishery. Research findings suggest that a number of interacting variables, including harvesters’ heterogeneity and conflicting mental models of the SES, low levels of trust and social capital, and changes in the resource system following collapse impeded collective action necessary to support fine-scale management. However, changing leadership characteristics and increasing horizontal collaboration between harvesters and scientists have positively influenced governance outcomes in recent years and provide a window of opportunity to transition towards a more adaptive and collaborative governance arrangement conducive to addressing problems of fit in the urchin fishery.

Global resistance to antimicrobials and their sustainable use in agriculture

Global resistance to antimicrobials and their sustainable use in agriculture

What future for primates? Conservation struggles in the forests of Cross River State, Nigeria

While deforestation and forest degradation have gained attention in recent years not least at the UN climate negotiations, a third “de”, i.e., defaunation, has to a great extent been overlooked. Human-induced faunal loss does not only reduce tree species diversity, but also significantly erodes key ecosystem services and functions and further disadvantages local communities. In this article, we analyze these impacts, and the associated multi-level governance gaps, through a case study of Nigeria’s Cross River State and make suggestions for more encompassing conservation approaches that take defaunation into account. To this end, we analyze the interplay between current forest governance and REDD+ in Cross River State and local hunting of forest fauna. Drawing on Ostrom’s social-ecological systems framework and a mixed-methods approach, we identify shortcomings and gaps of international and domestic forest governance, for instance, the ongoing expansion of agriculture in forest areas, a lack of collective action on forest fauna conservation at the local level, as well as conflicts amongst key actors at the sub-national level. Current REDD+ governance in Cross River State largely fails to address fauna loss and local hunting practices, but also affect allocation and access of environmental benefits and burdens for local people.

Machine learning to analyze the social-ecological impacts of natural resource policy: insights from community forest management in the Indian Himalaya

Machine learning promises to advance analysis of the social and ecological impacts of forest and other natural resource policies around the world. However, realizing this promise requires addressing a number of challenges characteristic of the forest sector. Forests are complex social-ecological systems (SESs) with myriad interactions and feedbacks potentially linked to policy impacts. This complexity makes it hard for machine learning methods to distinguish between significant causal relationships and random fluctuations due to noise. In this context, SES frameworks together with quasi-experimental impact evaluation approaches can facilitate the use of machine learning by providing guidance on the choice of variables while reducing bias in estimated effects. Here we combine an SES framework, optimal matching, and Causal Tree-based algorithms to examine causal impacts of two community forest management policies (forest cooperatives and joint state-community partnerships) on vegetation growth in the Indian Himalaya. We find that neither policy had a major impact on average, but there was important heterogeneity in effects conditional on local contextual conditions. For joint forest management, a set of biophysical and climate factors shaped differential policy impacts across the study region. By contrast, cooperative forest management performed much better in locations where existing grazing-based livelihoods were safeguarded. Stronger local institutions and secure tenure under cooperative management explain the difference in outcomes between the two policies. Despite their potential, machine learning approaches do have limitations, including absence of valid precision estimates for heterogeneity estimates and issues of estimate stability. Therefore, they should be viewed as a complement to impact evaluation approaches that, among other potential uses, can uncover key drivers of heterogeneity and generate new questions and hypotheses to improve knowledge and policy relating to forest and other natural resource governance challenges.

Governing trade-offs in ecosystem services and disservices to achieve human-wildlife coexistence.

Sustaining wildlife populations, which provide both ecosystem services and disservices, represents a worldwide conservation challenge. The ecosystem services and Ostrom's social-ecological systems frameworks have been adopted across natural and social sciences to characterize benefits from nature. Despite their generalizability, individually they do not include explicit tools for addressing the sustainable management of many wildlife populations. For instance, Ostrom's framework does not specifically address competing perspectives on wildlife, whereas the ecosystem services framework provides a limited representation of the social and governance context wherein such competing perspectives are embedded. We developed a unified social-ecological framework of ecosystem disservices and services (SEEDS) that advances both frameworks by explicitly acknowledging the importance of competing wildlife perspectives embedded in the social and governance contexts. The SEEDS framework emulates the hierarchical structure of Ostrom's social-ecological systems, but adds subsystems reflecting heterogeneous stakeholder views and experiences of wildlife-based services and disservices. To facilitate operationalizing SEEDS and further broader analyses across human-wildlife systems, we devised a list of variables to describe SEEDS subsystems, such as types and level of services and disservices, cost and benefit sharing, and social participation of stakeholders. Steps to implement SEEDS involve engaging local communities and stakeholders to define the subsystems, analyze interactions and outcomes, and identify leverage points and actions to remedy unwanted outcomes. These steps connect SEEDS with other existing approaches in social-ecological research and can guide analyses across systems or within individual systems to provide new insights and management options for sustainable human-wildlife coexistence.

山水林田湖草生态修复工程的社会-生态系统(SES)分析框架及应用——以浙江省钱塘江源头区域为例

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 山水林田湖草生态修复工程的社会-生态系统(SES)分析框架及应用——以浙江省钱塘江源头区域为例 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201905301139 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家社会科学基金重大项目（14ZDA039） Social-ecological system (SES) analysis framework for application in ecological restoration engineering of mountains-rivers-forests-farmlands-lakes-grasslands: Utilizing the source area of Qiantang River in Zhejiang Province as an example Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:“山水林田湖草生命共同体”是人与自然和谐共处的指导原则，也是人类实现可持续发展的有效实践路径。根据Ostrom提出的社会-生态系统（SES）框架，以浙江省钱塘江源头区域为研究区，构建集流域、陆地和人类活动为一体的社会-生态系统（SES）概念框架，为生态修复工程提供一个问题导向的分析策略。研究发现基于Ostrom构建的钱塘江源头区域山水林田湖草生态修复工程的SES框架，可以用来诊断关键问题、分析影响因素、设定行动情景和评估结果，从而形成完整的实施和解决问题策略。由诊断关键问题得出，该区域面临地质灾害多发、水土流失、环境污染、生物结构单一等多重问题，而人类活动如城市扩张、过度开发自然资源、污染物排放等则是造成社会-生态系统失衡的主要因素。通过行动情景设置将SES框架中涉及的影响因素、解决途径、评价标准、期望的成效以及反馈机制等进行梳理，对研究区的社会-生态系统进行全面分析。根据设立的评价体系对生态修复工程进行生态环境和社会经济效果的动态评估，并不断地根据评价结果进行修正以获得最佳的预期成效。该框架为解决钱塘江源头区域山水林田湖草生态修复工程所面临的问题提供了一个系统的解决方案，并可根据研究区的特点进行相应调整，是一个具有强适用性的社会-生态系统分析框架。 Abstract:Taking mountains-rivers-forests-farmlands-lakes-grasslands as a life community is the guiding principle of the harmonious coexistence between human and nature, and is also an effective practical path for the sustainable development of mankind. According to the social-ecological system (SES) framework proposed by Ostrom, the source area of the Qiantang River in Zhejiang Province was used to construct a SES conceptual framework integrating watershed, land, and human activities. It provided a problem-oriented analysis strategy for ecological restoration projects. This study found that the SES framework of the ecological restoration project of "mountains-rivers-forests-farmlands-lakes-grasslands" in the source area of the Qiantang River can be used to diagnose key problems, analyze influencing factors, set action scenarios, and evaluate results to form a complete implementation and problem-solving strategy. Based on key problems in the diagnosis, this region faced multiple problems, including frequent geological disasters, soil and water loss, environmental pollution, and single biological structures, while human activities such as urban expansion, excessive exploitation of natural resources, and pollutant discharge were the main factors causing an imbalance in the SES. By setting action scenarios, the influencing factors, solutions, evaluation criteria, expected results, and feedback mechanisms involved in the SES framework were sorted to comprehensively analyze the SES of the study area. According to the established evaluation system, the ecological restoration and environmental economic effects of the ecological restoration project were evaluated dynamically, and constantly revised based on the evaluation results to obtain the best expected results. This framework provided a systematic solution to solve the problems faced by the ecological restoration project "mountains-rivers-forests-farmlands-lakes-grasslands" in the source area of the Qiantang River, and could be adjusted according to the characteristics of the study area. This is a SES analysis framework with strong applicability. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

The Actor in 4 dimensions: A relevant methodology to analyze local environmental governance and inform Ostrom’s social-ecological systems framework

This paper presents the Actor in 4 dimensions (A4D) model as a complementary tool to the Social-ecological systems framework (SESF) in order to better integrate individual and groups’ representations into local environmental governance analysis. As the A4D is based on actors’ representations of their social-ecological system (SES) and of its governance, it mainly informs the Actors subsystem of the SESF, even if it can also give useful insights for other framework’s sub-systems. We define the SESF actor’s sub-tiers and the corresponding A4D indicators and highlight the complementarity between both approaches in order to operationalize the SESF. This parallel is exemplified by the case of Maio island (a small-scale fishing community in Cape Verde). Our comparison also highlights other assets of the A4D methodology for the advancement of environmental governance’s study.•The A4D allows actors' participation and discussion on the SES and analyses common and divergent discourses and values between actors.•The A4D points to power relations by integrating strong, weak and absent actors in its analysis.•By highlighting subjective and reflexive elements, the A4D complements the SESF in their common attempt to analyze SES.