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McGill University Ph.D. student Marianne Falardeau's short film documents future scenarios in the Arctic
Apr 25, 2019 |
Filmed in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, "Hivunikhavut - Our Future" shows how participatory scenarios developed with local residents can be used to explore future change. |
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As part of her Ph.D. research at McGill University, Marianne Falardeau produced a short film based on her work in the Kitimeot region of Canada's Arctic. Titled "Hivunikhavut - Our Future", the film presents a participatory scenario project that explored the future of the Kitikmeot Marine Region of Nunavut by 2050. Along with her colleagues Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne and Elena Bennett, Marianne designed and facilitated a participatory scenario exercise in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut in 2017 and 2018. The short film features workshop participants and their reflections on the process of creating scenarios as a way of exploring and shaping future changes in the region.
An outreach report documents the scenario work, presenting three scenarios developed by workshop participants and discusses how the scenarios might be used in the future to help bring about desirable outcomes.
The short film can be found here: https://youtu.be/ch7mW9eUqms
Trailer here:https://youtu.be/swaNn034Kjs
Report and an executive summary:
http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/R/-?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=162490&silo_library=GEN01
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Social-ecological change in the Omo-Turkana basin: A synthesis of current developments
Apr 24, 2019 |
Jennifer Hodbod and Edward G.J. Stevenson along with co-authors synthesize impacts of the Gibe III dam and large-scale commercial farming in Ethiopia using a social-ecological systems and political ecology framework. |
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Drawing upon the work of a multi-disciplinary network of researchers focused on the Omo-Turkana basin in Ethiopia, lead authors Hodbod and Stevenson describe early and potential future impacts of the Gibe III dam on surrounding communities and ecosystems in Ethiopia and Kenya. Using an ecosystem services framework the authors disaggregate impacts among different groups of people to illustrate which groups benefit and which groups bear the majority of the costs of development in the area. Published in Ambio, the review offers an integrated perspective on social-ecological change that combines a systems approach with a political ecology framework.
Citation:
Hodbod, J. E.G.J. Stevenson, G. Akall, T. Akuja, I.A. Bedasso, L. Buffavand, S. Derbyshire, I. Eulenberger, N. Gownaris, B. Kamski, A. Kurew, M. Lukuruka, M.F. Mulugeta, D. Okenwa, C. Rodgers, E. Tebbs. 2019. Social-ecological change in the Imo-Turkana basin: A synthesis of current developments. Ambio https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1139-3
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Social-Ecological Systems Research can inform Monitoring of SDGs
Apr 02, 2019 |
Monitoring the SDGs is necessary to track progress towards achieving sustainable outcomes. A recent paper by Selomane, Reyers, Biggs, and Hamann suggests ways that SDG monitoring can better take into account systems dynamics and complexity by drawing on insights from SES research. |
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Odirilwe Selomane and colleagues analyzed the SDGs in relation to five key features of social-ecological systems: social-ecological feedbacks, resilience, heterogeneity, nonlinearity, and cross-scale dynamics. They discover that while the SDGs were designed with a systems approach in mind, the indicators used to monitor the SDGs fall short of fully engaging with complex adaptive systems concepts and insights. They contend that SES research can inform the future development of monitoring progress towards achieving the SDGs.
Two challenges highlighted by Selomane et al. are that firstly, monitoring micro-level components or properties may miss important interactions that give rise to emergent behaviour at a macro level. Secondly, a "systems" approach is not the same as a "complex adaptive systems" approach. The latter involves key features mentioned above, that can help inform a more integrated approach to SDG monitoring that accounts for system dynamics and complexity in ways that are relevant to sustainability outcomes.
Selomane, O., B. Reyers, R. Biggs, and M. Hamann 2019. Harnessing Insights from Social-Ecological Systems Research for Monitoring Sustainable Development. Sustainability 11, 1190; doi:10.3390/su11041190
Link to paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/4/1190
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A resilience framework for the Great Green Wall Initiative
Mar 15, 2019 |
Deborah Goffner, Hanna Sinare and Line Gordon present a resilience-focused, transdisciplinary framework for the Great Green Wall in the Sahel. |
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Having evolved from a massive scale tree-planting and reforestation initiative into a more modular approach that combines a variety of landscape-scale actions that are tuned to their local context, the Great Green Wall could be a game changer for the Sahel, according to Goffner and her colleagues. They describe how previous actions that took a broad scale, simplified approach to greening the Sahel, fell short of achieving their goals and how a resilience framework that integrates past, present and future social-ecological systems and the bundles of ecosystem services they provide, can help with identifying and coordinating strategic actions to create resilient Sahelian landscapes.
Read the full paper here.
Goffner, D., H. Sinare, and L.J. Gordon. The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative as an opportunity to enhance resilience in Sahelian landscapes and livelihoods. Regional Environmental Change. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-019-01481-z
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Literature on the resilience of complex systems is complex
Mar 13, 2019 |
Steven Lade and Garry Peterson comment on a recent literature review that found the literature on resilience of complex systems to be highly compartmentalized. |
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In their letter to the editor, researchers Steven Lade and Garry Peterson demonstrate how search terms and disciplinary blinders can skew results when looking across fields at the literature on the resilience of complex systems.
With the variety of ways in which researchers in different disciplines describe, define, and conceptualize resilience and complex systems, it appears that a comprehensive literature search demands a variety of terms be included in the search. In response to a narrow search on ISI Web of Knowledge that limited the selection of literature on the topic, Lade and Peterson show how key papers can be excluded thus giving an incomplete picture on the state of science.
Read the full letter to the editor here.
Lade, L.J. and G.D. Peterson. 2019. Comment on "Resilience of Complex Systems: State of the Art and Directions for Future Research". Complexity. Article ID 6343545. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/63435445.
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Wayfinder is a new generation of resilience assessment and planning for development practitioners
Sep 11, 2018 |
Wayfinder - A resilience guide for navigating toward sustainable futures will have an official launch on September 12, 2018 at 11:00 Stockholm (CET). livestream: https://buff.ly/2MieGqB |
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Wayfinder is a flagship initiative of the Sida funded programme, GRAID. Learn more at wayfinder.earth and follow the launch livestream via the Stockholm Resilience Center facebook page: https://buff.ly/2MieGqB
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New Book! Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance
Jun 11, 2018 |
Editors Barbara Cosens and Lance Gunderson bring together the latest thinking on the links between law and social-ecological resilience. Published by Springer, the book presents results and insights from an interdisciplinary project exploring law, policy, and ecological dimensions of governance in American and Australian regional water systems. |
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Contributing authors are at the forefront of a new and growing area of research linking law to social-ecological resilience and applying resilience as a bridging concept. Eighteen chapters cover a range of perspectives on factors enabling or constraining adaptive water governance and detailed historical assessment of six water basins in the U.S. yield insights into cross-scale interactions.
Visit the publisher's website for more information and to download a product flyer or purchase a copy of the book: https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319724706.
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Navigating the New Arctic
Mar 20, 2018 |
Navigating the new Arctic is a series of NSF funded workshops led by Craig Allen, Hannah Birge and Martha Shulski. The first meeting was held March 13-15, 2018 in Fairbanks Alaska. |
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A number of RA members are participating in this series of workshops that is designed to explore the theme of convergence as it relates to what is being called The New Arctic, reflecting the complex dynamics and rapid changes underway in the Arctic. The first workshop brought together a diverse group of participants contributing their expertise in the areas of biogeochemistry, economics, traditional knowledge, complex adaptive systems, and resilience.
The workshop focused on six themes that span a variety of perspectives and disciplines including: Arctic resilience to global-scale drivers, Indigenous traditional knowedge, biogeochemical cycling, spatial regimes, agroecosystem mid-latitude linkages, and new tools for convergence.
The United States' National Science Foundation (NSF) funds work addressing grand challenges within science and engineering. Through its "Growing Convergent Research" portfolio , NSF highlights the value of Convergence, i.e., "the deep integration of multiple disciplines in order to ad- vance scientific discovery and innovation."
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Practicing Panarchy - Special Feature in Ecology & Society
Feb 14, 2018 |
Guest editors Chaffin, Gunderson, and Cosens introduce a new special feature that assesses legal and governance aspects of U.S. river systems experiencing climate change. |
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A new special feature in Ecology & Society focuses on the intersection of law, governance, and ecological resilience. Practicing Panarchy: Assessing Legal Flexibility, Ecological Resilience, and Adaptive Governance in U.S. Resilience Water Systems Experiencing Climate Change is edited by Brian Chaffin, Lance Gunderson, and Barbara Cosens.
The special feature articles focus on six watersheds in the United States (Anacostia River, Central Platte River, Klamath River, Columbia River, Middle Rio Grand River, and the Everglades wetlands) and assesses their capacity to adapt and respond to rapid environmental change. In all six cases the river systems involve complex governance systems and historical legacies that influence their capacity to cope with climate change and other stresses. By exploring these cases through a legal lens, the articles help advance our understanding of the role of law and governance in processes of adaptation and transformation. An introduction to the special feature sets the context and lays the foundation for a novel interdisciplinary approach to understanding complex, cross-scale interactions in large watershed systems.
Reference (Introduction to the Special Feature):
Cosens, B. A., L. Gunderson, and B. C. Chaffin. 2018. Introduction to the Special Feature Practicing Panarchy: Assessing legal flexibility, ecological resilience, and adaptive governance in regional water systems experiencing rapid environmental change. Ecology and Society 23(1):4.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09524-230104
Link to the Special Feature table of contents:
https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/issues/view.php?sf=122
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E&S in the news
Dec 04, 2017 |
An article on the role of culture in conservation highlights E&S paper by Alaka Wali and colleagues "A new approach to conservation: using community empowerment for sustainable well-being". |
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Knowledge of natural resources and how to manage them sustainably already exists in many cultures around the world. A recently published study in Ecology and Society proposes a new approach to conservation that taps into ancient traditional knowledge.
The study by Wali et al. is highlighted in The Christian Science Monitor article "Is culture missing from conservation? Scientists take cues from indigenous peoples."
Reference:
Wali, A., D. Alvira, P. S. Tallman, A. Ravikumar, and M. O. Macedo. 2017. A new approach to conservation: using community empowerment for sustainable well-being. Ecology and Society 22(4):6.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09598-220406
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