The article analyzes the scientific approaches of Dutch scientists to the problems of managing the transition to sustainable development. Based on the analysis of research in the Netherlands, the author concludes on the methodological dominance of the coevolutionary concept and the theory of complex systems. The transition to sustainable development is seen as coevolutionary social change. Coevolution of sustainable development implies the possibility of transforming the processes of coevolution into a more sustainable way of development. The essence of managing the transition to sustainable development is goal-oriented modulation and directed coordination of all actors involved in this process. Transition management is viewed as a particular form of multilevel governance in which state and non-state actors work together to co-produce and coordinate policies in an iterative and coevolutionary way at different levels. The necessary qualities of such management are adaptability, reflexivity, and coherence of actors’ positions. Adaptive transition management involves the social learning of management actors based on problem structuring and strategic experimentation. Transition management combines elements of long-term planning, elements of incremental market approach, and social network interaction management techniques. Distinctive characteristics of such management are heterarchy, three-tiered structure, and distributed administration. Since transition management is aimed at long-term change of functional systems in a gradual way, with the use of variations and their selection, its implementation is possible in a society whose interests are well organized, and there is no authoritarian management. The considered scientific foundations for managing the transition to sustainable development are used in the Netherlands to manage the transition to sustainable energy, sustainable mobility, sustainable agriculture, sustainable water use, and the transition to biodiversity and natural resources. In Russia and Kazakhstan, it is possible to use this approach to select, organize and structure management styles and tools for managing the transition to sustainable development.
Long‐term change in dissolved inorganic nutrients in the heterotrophic Scheldt estuary (Belgium, The Netherlands)
