Double-Loop Learning in Adaptive Management: The Need, the Challenge, and the Opportunity

Abstract

Adaptive management addresses uncertainty about the processes influencing resource dynamics, as well as the elements of decision making itself. The use of management to reduce both kinds of uncertainty is known as double-loop learning. Though much work has been done on the theory and procedures to address structural uncertainty, there has been less progress in developing an explicit approach for institutional learning about decision elements. Our objective is to describe evidence-based learning about the decision elements, as a complement to the formal “learning by doing” framework for reducing structural uncertainties. Adaptive management is described as a multi-phase approach to management and learning, with a set-up phase of identifying stakeholders, objectives, and other decision elements; an iterative phase that uses these elements in an ongoing cycle of technical learning about system structure and management impacts; and an institutional learning phase involving the periodic reconsideration of the decision elements. We describe a framework for institutional learning that is complementary to that of technical learning, including uncertainty metrics, propagation of change, and mechanisms and consequences of change over time. Operational issues include ways to recognize when the decision elements should be revisited, which elements should be adjusted, and how alternatives can be identified and incorporated based on experience and management performance. We discuss the application of this framework in decision making for renewable natural resources. As important as it is to learn about the processes driving resource dynamics, learning about the elements of the decision architecture is equally, if not more, important.

A review of the importance, gaps and future directions of Integrated Lake Basin Management Planning in Malaysia

“…Review of a plan may differ with the plan orientation and scope and can also follow either a single or double learning loop, as proposed in the adaptive management cycle. According to Williams & Brown (2019), such adaptive management cycles facilitate adjustments in the decision‐making process with a growing understanding of issues or changes in stakeholder preferences.…”

A systems approach to ecosystem adaptive management : a USACE technical guide

“…Basic steps of traditional adaptive management (e.g., Walters 1986). This diagram includes "double-loop" learning reflecting institutional learning, described by Williams and Brown (2018) Table 5. Components of a decision-making process (Rubenstein 1975…”

“…Walters 1986). This diagram includes "double-loop" learning reflecting institutional learning, described by Williams and Brown (2018).…”

“…Many authors describe this cycle as involving two phases: (1) a deliberative phase involves framing the resource management issue in terms of stakeholders, objectives, management alternatives, predictive models (including measures of the confidence one places in them), and monitoring protocols; and (2) an iterative phase that uses these elements in an ongoing cycle of technical learning about system structure, function, and management impacts. Williams and Brown (2018) identifies an institutional learning phase that focuses on the decision components themselves by periodically interrupting the iterative cycle of technical learning to reconsider project objectives, management alternatives, stakeholder engagement, and other elements of the deliberative phase.…”

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