Adaptive management for ecosystem services

Birgé, Hannah E.; Allen, Craig R.; Garmestani, Ahjond S.; Pope, Kevin L.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.07.054

Cited by 64 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Although we only applied our framework at a single (i.e., watershed) scale, it could be used to increase understanding of FEWES nexus trajectories and traps within and across additional scales of organization. In light of the cross-scale organization of SES and their FEWES nexuses, cross-scale tradeoffs in the production of ecosystem services [35], and the potential for development of multi-scale rigidity traps [36], cross-scale assessments could generate insights for avoiding and escaping rigidity traps, adaptation, and transformation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Framework for Tracing Social–Ecological Trajectories and Traps in Intensive Agricultural Landscapes

et al. 2018

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Charting trajectories toward sustainable agricultural development is an important goal at the food-energy-water-ecosystem services (FEWES) nexus of agricultural landscapes. Social-ecological adaptation and transformation are two broad strategies for adjusting and resetting the trajectories of productive FEWES nexuses toward sustainable futures. In some cases, financial incentives, technological innovations, and/or subsidies associated with the short-term optimization of a small number of resources create and strengthen unsustainable feedbacks between social and ecological entities at the FEWES nexus. These feedbacks form the basis of rigidity traps, which impede adaptation and transformation by locking FEWES nexuses into unsustainable trajectories characterized by control, stability, and efficiency, but also an inability to adapt to disturbances or changing conditions. To escape and avoid rigidity traps and enable sustainability-focused adaptation and transformation, a foundational understanding of FEWES nexuses and their unique trajectories and traps is required. We present a framework for tracing trajectories and traps at the FEWES nexuses of intensive agricultural landscapes. Framework implementation in a case study reveals feedbacks characteristic of rigidity traps, as well as opportunities for modifying and dissolving them. Such place-based understanding could inform sustainable agricultural development at the FEWES nexus of intensive agricultural landscapes worldwide.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Framework for Tracing Social–Ecological Trajectories and Traps in Intensive Agricultural Landscapes

et al. 2018

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“…Co-monitoring is a critical component of co-learning and adaptive management [47]. Adaptive management further offers approaches to understanding the provisioning of ecosystem services and, more importantly, the explicit and implicit tradeoffs that occur between services and between spatiotemporal scales [48].…”

Section: Synthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Agroecology for the Shrinking City

et al. 2018

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Many cities are experiencing long-term declines in population and economic activity. As a result, frameworks for urban sustainability need to address the unique challenges and opportunities of such shrinking cities. Shrinking, particularly in the U.S., has led to extensive vacant land. The abundance of vacant land reflects a loss of traditional urban amenities, economic opportunity, neighbors, businesses, and even basic city services and often occurs in neighborhoods with socially and economically vulnerable or underserved populations. However, vacant land also provides opportunities, including the space to invest in green infrastructure that can provide ecosystem services and support urban sustainability. Achieving desirable amenities that provide ecosystem services from vacant land is the central tenet of a recent urban sustainability framework termed ecology for the shrinking city. An agroecological approach could operationalize ecology for the shrinking city to both manage vacancy and address ecosystem service goals. Developing an agroecology in shrinking cities not only secures provisioning services that use an active and participatory approach of vacant land management but also transforms and enhances regulating and supporting services. The human and cultural dimensions of agroecology create the potential for social-ecological innovations that can support sustainable transformations in shrinking cities. Overall, the strength of agroecological principles guiding a green infrastructure strategy stems from its explicit focus on how individuals and communities can shape their environment at multiple scales to produce outcomes that reflect their social and cultural context. Specifically, the shaping of the environment provides a pathway for communities to build agency and manage for resilience in urban social-ecological systems. Agroecology for the shrinking city can support desirable transformations, but to be meaningful, we recognize that it must be part of a greater strategy that addresses larger systemic issues facing shrinking cities and their residents.

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“…Resilience is often used in a normative context, because an unexpected reconfiguration into an alternative state is frequently associated with a persistent loss in desirable ecosystem services [6]. However, management intervention that seeks to intentionally transform a system from an undesirable to a desirable state may face considerable challenges if the current state is resilient to the intervention-in this context, resilience is an undesirable system property because it limits desired transformations [7].…”

Section: Defining Midsize City Resilience and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Avoiding Decline: Fostering Resilience and Sustainability in Midsize Cities

et al. 2016

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Eighty-five percent of United States citizens live in urban areas. However, research surrounding the resilience and sustainability of complex urban systems focuses largely on coastal megacities (>1 million people). Midsize cities differ from their larger counterparts due to tight urban-rural feedbacks with their immediate natural environments that result from heavy reliance and close management of local ecosystem services. They also may be less path-dependent than larger cities due to shorter average connection length among system components, contributing to higher responsiveness among social, infrastructural, and ecological feedbacks. These distinct midsize city features call for a framework that organizes information and concepts concerning the sustainability of midsize cities specifically. We argue that an integrative approach is necessary to capture properties emergent from the complex interactions of the social, infrastructural, and ecological subsystems that comprise a city system. We suggest approaches to estimate the relative resilience of midsize cities, and include an example assessment to illustrate one such estimation approach. Resilience assessments of a midsize city can be used to examine why some cities end up on sustainable paths while others diverge to unsustainable paths, and which feedbacks may be partially responsible. They also provide insight into how city planners and decision makers can use information about the resilience of midsize cities undergoing growth or shrinkage relative to their larger and smaller counterparts, to transform them into long-term, sustainable social-ecological systems.

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Adaptive management for ecosystem services

Cited by 64 publications

References 61 publications

A Framework for Tracing Social–Ecological Trajectories and Traps in Intensive Agricultural Landscapes

A Framework for Tracing Social–Ecological Trajectories and Traps in Intensive Agricultural Landscapes

Agroecology for the Shrinking City

Avoiding Decline: Fostering Resilience and Sustainability in Midsize Cities

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