Kinds of freshwater and their relation to ecosystem services and human well-being

Water Policy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 1229-1246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shakeel Hayat ◽  
Joyeeta Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
The Subject

The concept of ecosystem services (ESS) has evolved as a link between society and the environment and is recognized by both natural and social scientists. While this concept is increasingly being developed and applied to various ecological systems, it has not been defined specifically for different kinds of water. As water circulation is crucial for large-scale services, such as climatic and hydrological regulation at global and regional scales, water provides specific ecological and anthropogenic services needed for a myriad of chemical, biological, and social needs. Various scholars mostly deal with one specific kind of water, while efforts at water governance need to understand that water passes through different phases and geographical locations providing different services at multiple scales within social-ecological systems. Hence, this paper addresses the question: what are the ESS of different kinds of freshwater and how are these services linked to human well-being? This paper investigates the literature on the subject to create a taxonomy of the kinds of water and their relations to ESS and human well-being. The paper concludes by identifying the implications for governing different kinds of water in order to enhance the potential for optimizing the ESS provided by water in its different phases.

scholarly journals Adaptive Management of Ecosystem Services for Multisystemic Resilience

2021 ◽  
pp. 725-743
Author(s):  
Katharine F. E. Hogan ◽  
Kirsty L. Nash ◽  
Elena Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Adaptive Management ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Key Topics

Globally, ecosystems provide the equivalent of trillions of dollars every year in the form ecosystem services. These include provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. People are dependent on ecosystem services, yet their sustainability is at risk due to increasingly rapid global change that impacts the resilience of social-ecological systems at multiple scales. In this chapter, the authors outline the concepts and theory of multisystemic social-ecological resilience. They discuss management principles that embrace cycles of change in social-ecological systems and work with these systems toward sustainability rather than pushing for increased efficiency and stability, which tends to undermine resilience across systems and scales. They explore adaptive management as a framework that supports improved understanding and management of ecosystem services for resilience in light of global change, outlining key topics for questions of research and practice.

scholarly journals Understanding Regime Shifts in Social-Ecological System Using Data on Direct Ecosystem Service Use

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Censkowsky ◽  
Ilona M. Otto
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Kwazulu Natal

This paper takes a new look on transition processes in social-ecological systems, identified based on household use of direct ecosystem services in a case study in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We build on the assumption that high dependence on local ecosystems for basic needs satisfaction corresponds to a “green loop” type of system, with direct feedbacks between environmental degradation and human well-being. Increasing use of distant ecosystems marks a regime shift and with that, the transition to “red loops” in which feedbacks between environmental degradation and human well-being are only indirect. These systems are characterized by a fundamentally different set of sustainability problems as well as distinct human-nature connections. The analysis of a case study in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, shows that social-ecological systems identified as green loops in 1993, the average share of households using a characteristic bundle of direct ecosystem services drops consistently (animal production, crop production, natural building materials, freshwater, wood). Conversely, in systems identified as red loops, mixed tendencies occur which underpins non-linearities in changing human-nature relationships. We propose to apply the green to red loop transition model to other geographical contexts with regards to studying the use of local ecosystem services as integral part of transformative change in the Anthropocene.

scholarly journals Water ethics, justice, and equity in social-ecological systems conservation: lessons from the Queensland Wild Rivers Act

Water Policy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 933-952 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sameer H. Shah ◽  
Lucy Rodina
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource Management ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Resource Governance ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Water Ethics ◽  
Natural Rivers

Abstract The protection of natural rivers and watersheds face important concerns related to environmental (in)justice and (in)equity. Using the Queensland Wild Rivers Act as a case study, we advocate that ethical water governance attends to multiple and diverse values, specifically in ways that: (i) locate them within stakeholders' claims of inequality that emerge from a given or practiced water ethic; and (ii) historicize and understand them as resonating or reflecting natural resource management frameworks that have led to structural injustices. This approach, combined with adaptive co-governance, can contribute to more inclusive water ethics and even support reflexive spaces where radical change in social-ecological resource governance can be imagined.

scholarly journals Explaining and Measuring Social-Ecological Pathways: The Case of Global Changes and Water Security

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Bolognesi ◽  
Andrea K. Gerlak ◽  
Gregory Giuliani
Keyword(s):  
Water Governance ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Data Cube ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Technical Requirements ◽  
Social Ecological

The Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework serves as a valuable framework to explore and understand social and ecological interactions, and pathways in water governance. Yet, it lacks a robust understanding of change. We argue an analytical and methodological approach to engaging global changes in SES is critical to strengthening the scope and relevance of the SES framework. Relying on SES and resilience thinking, we propose an institutional and cognitive model of change that institutions and natural resources systems co-evolve to provide a dynamic understanding of SES that stands on three causal mechanisms: institutional complexity trap, rigidity trap, and learning processes. We illustrate how Data Cube technology could overcome current limitations and offer reliable avenues to test hypothesis about the dynamics of social-ecological systems and water security by offering to combine spatial and time data with no major technical requirements for users.

scholarly journals Revisiting the relationships between human well-being and ecosystems in dynamic social-ecological systems: Implications for stewardship and development

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa A. Masterson ◽  
Susanne Vetter ◽  
Tomas Chaigneau ◽  
Tim M. Daw ◽  
Odirilwe Selomane ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Natural Beauty

Non-technical summaryWe argue that the ways in which we as humans derive well-being from nature – for example by harvesting firewood, selling fish or enjoying natural beauty – feed back into how we behave towards the environment. This feedback is mediated by institutions (rules, regulations) and by individual capacities to act. Understanding these relationships can guide better interventions for sustainably improving well-being and alleviating poverty. However, more attention needs to be paid to how experience-related benefits from nature influence attitudes and actions towards the environment, and how these relationships can be reflected in more environmentally sustainable development projects.

scholarly journals Subjective well-being indicators for large-scale assessment of cultural ecosystem services

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 258-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Bryce ◽  
Katherine N. Irvine ◽  
Andrew Church ◽  
Robert Fish ◽  
Sue Ranger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Large Scale Assessment ◽  
Scale Assessment

scholarly journals Delayed behavioural shifts undermine the sustainability of social–ecological systems

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1868) ◽  
pp. 20171192 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-S. Lafuite ◽  
C. de Mazancourt ◽  
M. Loreau
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Habitat Destruction ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Ecological Feedbacks ◽  
Mixed Equilibria

Natural habitat destruction and fragmentation generate a time-delayed loss of species and associated ecosystem services. As social–ecological systems (SESs) depend on a range of ecosystem services, lagged ecological dynamics may affect their long-term sustainability. Here, we investigate the role of consumption changes for sustainability, under a time-delayed ecological feedback on agricultural production. We use a stylized model that couples the dynamics of biodiversity, technology, human demography and compliance with a social norm prescribing sustainable consumption. Compliance with the sustainable norm reduces both the consumption footprint and the vulnerability of SESs to transient overshoot-and-collapse population crises. We show that the timing and interaction between social, demographic and ecological feedbacks govern the transient and long-term dynamics of the system. A sufficient level of social pressure (e.g. disapproval) applied on the unsustainable consumers leads to the stable coexistence of unsustainable and sustainable or mixed equilibria, where both defectors and conformers coexist. Under bistability conditions, increasing extinction debts reduces the resilience of the system, thus favouring abrupt regime shifts towards unsustainable pathways. Given recent evidence of large extinction debts, such results call for farsightedness and a better understanding of time delays when studying the sustainability of coupled SESs.

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