scholarly journals Integrated modelling to support decision-making for marine social–ecological systems in Australia

2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (9) ◽  
pp. 2298-2308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Melbourne-Thomas ◽  
Andrew J Constable ◽  
Elizabeth A Fulton ◽  
Stuart P Corney ◽  
Rowan Trebilco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
System Level ◽  
Integrated Modelling ◽  
Marine Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Face

Abstract Policy- and decision-makers require assessments of status and trends for marine species, habitats, and ecosystems to understand if human activities in the marine environment are sustainable, particularly in the face of global change. Central to many assessments are statistical and dynamical models of populations, communities, ecosystems, and their socioeconomic systems and management frameworks. The establishment of a national system that could facilitate the development of such model-based assessments has been identified as a priority for addressing management challenges for Australia’s marine environment. Given that most assessments require cross-scale information, individual models cannot capture all of the spatial, temporal, biological, and socioeconomic scales that are typically needed. Coupling or integrating models across scales and domains can expand the scope for developing comprehensive and internally consistent, system-level assessments, including higher-level feedbacks in social–ecological systems. In this article, we summarize: (i) integrated modelling for marine systems currently being undertaken in Australia, (ii) methods used for integration and comparison of models, and (iii) improvements to facilitate further integration, particularly with respect to standards and specifications. We consider future needs for integrated modelling of marine social–ecological systems in Australia and provide a set of recommendations for priority focus areas in the development of a national approach to integrated modelling. These recommendations draw on—and have broader relevance for—international efforts around integrated modelling to inform decision-making for marine systems.

scholarly journals Adaptive capacity: from assessment to action in coastal social-ecological systems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte K. Whitney ◽  
Nathan Bennett ◽  
Natalie Ban ◽  
Edward H. Allison ◽  
Derek Armitage ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Assessment Approach ◽  
The Face ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Evaluation And Monitoring

Because of the complexity and speed of environmental, climatic, and socio-political change in coastal marine social-ecological systems, there is significant academic and applied interest in assessing and fostering the adaptive capacity of coastal communities. Adaptive capacity refers to the latent ability of a system to respond proactively and positively to stressors or opportunities. A variety of qualitative, quantitative, and participatory approaches have been developed and applied to understand and assess adaptive capacity, each with different benefits, drawbacks, insights, and implications. Drawing on case studies of coastal communities from around the globe, we describe and compare 11 approaches that are often used to study adaptive capacity of social and ecological systems in the face of social, environmental, and climatic change. We synthesize lessons from a series of case studies to present important considerations to frame research and to choose an assessment approach, key challenges to analyze adaptive capacity in linked social-ecological systems, and good practices to link results to action to foster adaptive capacity. We suggest that more attention be given to integrated social-ecological assessments and that greater effort be placed on evaluation and monitoring of adaptive capacity over time and across scales. Overall, although sustainability science holds a promise of providing solutions to real world problems, we found that too few assessments seem to lead to tangible outcomes or actions to foster adaptive capacity in social-ecological systems.

Sea level rise impacts on rural coastal social-ecological systems and the implications for decision making

2018 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 122-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bhattachan ◽  
M.D. Jurjonas ◽  
A.C. Moody ◽  
P.R. Morris ◽  
G.M. Sanchez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Sea Level Rise Impacts

Resilience

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Folke
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Dynamics ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Resilience Thinking ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Individual

Resilience thinking in relation to the environment has emerged as a lens of inquiry that serves a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. Resilience is about cultivating the capacity to sustain development in the face of expected and surprising change and diverse pathways of development and potential thresholds between them. The evolution of resilience thinking is coupled to social-ecological systems and a truly intertwined human-environment planet. Resilience as persistence, adaptability and, transformability of complex adaptive social-ecological systems is the focus, clarifying the dynamic and forward-looking nature of the concept. Resilience thinking emphasizes that social-ecological systems, from the individual, to community, to society as a whole, are embedded in the biosphere. The biosphere connection is an essential observation if sustainability is to be taken seriously. In the continuous advancement of resilience thinking there are efforts aimed at capturing resilience of social-ecological systems and finding ways for people and institutions to govern social-ecological dynamics for improved human well-being, at the local, across levels and scales, to the global. Consequently, in resilience thinking, development issues for human well-being, for people and planet, are framed in a context of understanding and governing complex social-ecological dynamics for sustainability as part of a dynamic biosphere.

scholarly journals Strategies for managing complex social-ecological systems in the face of uncertainty: examples from South Africa and beyond

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs ◽  
Clint Rhode ◽  
Sally Archibald ◽  
Lucky Makhosini Kunene ◽  
Shingirirai S. Mutanga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Face

scholarly journals Cooperation in the face of thresholds, risk, and uncertainty: Experimental evidence in fisher communities from Colombia

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0242363
Author(s):  
Juan C. Rocha ◽  
Caroline Schill ◽  
Lina M. Saavedra-Díaz ◽  
Rocío del Pilar Moreno ◽  
Jorge Higinio Maldonado
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Dynamic Game ◽  
Fishing Effort ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Tipping Points ◽  
Risk And Uncertainty ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Face

Cooperation is thought to be a necessary condition to solve collective action dilemmas such as climate change or the sustainable use of common pool resources. Yet, it is poorly understood how situations pervaded by thresholds shape the behaviour of people facing collective dilemmas. Here we provide empirical evidence that resource users facing thresholds maintain on average cooperative behaviours in the sense of maximising their individual earnings while ensuring future group opportunities. A framed field experiment in the form of a dynamic game with 256 Colombian fishers helped us investigate individual behavioural responses to the existence of thresholds, risk and uncertainty. Thresholds made fishers extract less fish compared to situation without thresholds, but risk had a stronger effect on reducing individual fishing effort. Contrary to previous expectations, cooperation did not break down. If cooperation can be maintained in the face of thresholds, then communicating uncertainty is more policy-relevant than estimating precisely where tipping points lay in social-ecological systems.

scholarly journals Structural and Contentual Complexity in Water Governance

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 9751
Author(s):  
Rudy Vannevel ◽  
Peter L. M. Goethals
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Environmental Analysis ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Organization And Management ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Institutional Organization

Social-ecological systems and governance are complex systems and crises that affect those systems are likely to be complex as well. Environmental topics are multi-faceted with respect to both structure and content. Structural complexity is about societal and institutional organization and management, whereas contentual complexity deals with environmental (or societal) analyses, knowledge, and problem-solving. Interactions between both are manifold, and it is essential they are included in decision-making. Describing these interactions results in a series of nineteen units, arranged in a matrix according to their prevailing mutual dependencies. These units show dominant processes and concepts, representative of environmental analysis. This approach, called ACCU (aggregation of concepts and complex adapted systems units), is provided with evidence through practices of, in particular, water governance.

scholarly journals Rethinking Sustainability Monitoring in the Arctic by Linking Resilience and Sustainable Development in Socially-Oriented Observations: A Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Tatiana Vlasova ◽  
Andrey N. Petrov ◽  
Sergey Volkov
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Systems Dynamics ◽  
Informed Decision Making ◽  
Valuable Component ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

Monitoring of social-ecological systems dynamics and sustainability is of high importance in a rapidly changing Arctic. The goal of this essay is to discuss and articulate the principles for designing a suitable Arctic sustainability monitoring framework based on the convergence between resilience thinking and sustainable development paradigms. We propose to integrate sustainability monitoring into the socially-oriented observations (SOO) methodologies in order to design Arctic sustainability monitoring as a transdisciplinary participatory activity that results in both co-production of sustainability knowledge and building more sustainable and resilient Arctic social-ecological systems by enabling continuous observation and informed decision-making. Special attention is given to approaches for developing sustainability indicators to monitor trends in Arctic social-ecological systems. It is argued that sustainability monitoring is a valuable component of the Arctic sustainability knowledge system that integrates social and natural sciences and engages Indigenous, local, and traditional knowledge, entrepreneurship, education, and decision-making. Bringing together diverse knowledge systems is the primary route to collectively pursue sustainability in a holistic, polycentric, multifaceted, participatory, and knowledge-driven manner. Transdisciplinary SOO approaches and methods are specifically discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document