Focusing the Meaning(s) of Resilience: Resilience as a Descriptive Concept and a Boundary Object

Brand, Fridolin S.; Jax, Kurt

doi:10.5751/es-02029-120123

Cited by 1,115 publications

(809 citation statements)

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“…An increasing number of scientists are suggesting that resilience is central to determining sustainability in social-ecological systems Holling and Gunderson, 2002;Walker and Salt, 2006;Brand and Jax, 2007). 'Resilience thinking' as a conceptual framework is constructed upon the idea of multiple metastable regimes separated by critical thresholds at multiple distinctive scales with cross-scale interactions (the panarchy), the importance of episodic change (leading to the adaptive cycle metaphor), and resilience.…”

Section: Resilience and Regenerative Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a regenerative paradigm for the built environment

Plessis

2012

Building Research & Information

217

155

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The concept of regenerative design and development is situated within the broader theoretical context of sustainability. The emerging regenerative paradigm is contrasted with the two current sustainability paradigms -internationally negotiated 'idealistic' public policy and private sector 'Ecological Modernization' -that seek to maintain the status quo. Each of these sustainability paradigms is explained though a brief historical narrative to illustrate their response to broader social pressures, the main critiques of each and some commonalities. It is argued that the dominant sustainability paradigms are reaching the limitations of their usefulness due to their conceptual foundation in an inappropriate mechanistic worldview and their tacit support of a modernization project that prevents effective engagement with a complex, dynamic and living world. The regenerative paradigm provides an alternative that is explicitly designed to engage with a living world through its emphasis on a co-creative partnership with nature based on strategies of adaptation, resilience and regeneration. It provides a foundation for a sustainability paradigm that is relevant to an ecological worldview.

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Section: Resilience and Regenerative Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a regenerative paradigm for the built environment

Plessis

2012

Building Research & Information

217

155

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“…Maintenance of biodiversity and ecological processes is crucial in order to ensure the resilience of forest stands (Drever et al 2006). This resilience allows ecosystems faced with disturbances to maintain their functions and structure (Brand and Jax 2007). The uniformization of stand structure and composition and the loss of old forests associated with forest management reduces forest resilience (Landres et al 1999).…”

Section: Three Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability assessment to climate change of three ecosystem-based forest management projects in Quebec

GoffHéloïse

BergeronYves

2014

The Forestry Chronicle

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The new forest management stewardship of Quebec acknowledges the importance of integrating climate change consequences into forest management. However, forest professionals do not know how they could take climate change into account into their decision-making. This paper proposes the assessment of climate change vulnerability for three ecosystem-based forest management (EBFM) projects in Quebec: the Tembec project in the Abitibi region, the Triad project in the Mauricie region, and the Laurentian Wildlife Reserve project. The objectives were to identify: i) climate change vulnerabilities affecting forest ecosystems and forest management, ii) adaptation options to decrease these vulnerabilities, and iii) current EBFM practices impeding or facilitating the integration of climate change adaptations in forest management. Several features of EBFM, like promoting ecosystem resilience and using an adaptive management framework, may facilitate the integration of adaptation measures into the current forest management approach. We present climate change adaptation as a piece of the puzzle that would facilitate the achievement of EBFM objectives.Keywords: adaptation to climate change, sustainable forest management, resilience, adaptive management, case studies RÉSUMÉ Le nouveau régime forestier du Québec reconnaît l'importante de considérer les conséquences des changements climatiques en aménagement forestier. Cependant, les professionnels forestiers ne savent pas comment ils pourraient tenir compte des changements climatiques dans leurs décisions. Cet article présente l' évaluation de la vulnérabilité aux changements climatiques de trois projets d'aménagement forestier écosystémique (AFE) au Québec: le projet de Tembec dans la région de l' Abitibi, le projet Triade dans la région de la Mauricie, et le projet de la Réserve faunique des Laurentides. Les objectifs étaient d'identifier i) les vulnérabilités aux changements climatiques des écosystèmes forestiers et de l'aménagement forestier, ii) des options d'adaptation visant à réduire ces vulnérabilités, et iii) les pratiques empêchant ou facilitant l'intégration de l'adaptation aux changements climatiques en aménagement forestier. L' AFE présente plusieurs aspects, comme l'amélioration de la résilience des écosystèmes ou l'utilisation d'une gestion adaptative, qui pourraient faciliter l'intégration de mesures d'adaptation dans notre façon actuelle d'aménager les forêts. Nous présentons l'adaptation aux changements climatiques comme une pièce du casse-tête qui pourrait faciliter l'atteinte d' objectifs d' AFE.

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“…Note also, that under a more recent suggestions the focus of management might not be for stability of ecosystem function per se, but just provision consistently above some socially acceptable threshold, although the two are likely to be correlated) [11,12]. [6,13,14]. In the ER literature the focus of resilience is varyingly defined as the system state (i.e.…”

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confidence: 99%

A Synthesis is Emerging between Biodiversity–Ecosystem Function and Ecological Resilience Research: Reply to Mori

Oliver

Heard

Isaac

et al. 2016

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

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A recent paper by Mori [1] states the need for a unification of studies of 'engineering' and 'ecological' frameworks of resilience. Engineering resilience focuses on the capacity of a system to recover to equilibrium following some kind of perturbation, whilst ecological resilience explicitly recognizes multiples stable states and the capacity for systems to resist 'regime shifts' between alternate states. We find Mori's argument somewhat surprising given the number of recent biodiversity--ecosystem functioning studies (B--EF) that incorporate aspects of both resistance and recovery [e.g. see references in 2, 3]. We would argue that a synthesis is well underway and that apparent discrepancies are more due to differences in the spatial, temporal and systems scale of focus, and ambiguities in defining this study context, rather than any fundamental incompatibilities in conceptual frameworks.With regards to our recent review on the mechanisms which underpin the resilience of ecosystem functions [3], Mori states: "To avoid confusion, resilience in this case should be explicitly termed as recovery or defined as the analogy of engineering resilience". We clearly consider both recovery and resistance mechanisms that promote the resilience of ecosystem functions. It is unclear what would be the benefit of narrowing the focus to recovery or engineering resilience.Mori appears to feel that although there is some consideration of resistance in recent B--EF research (red text in his Box 1), it does not adequately embrace some of the concepts in the 'ecological resilience' definition, such as the potential for alternative stable states. We clearly define resilience at the level of an individual function, specifically as "the degree to which the ecosystem function can resist or recover rapidly from environmental perturbations, thereby maintaining function above a socially acceptable level" [3]. This definition does not preclude the existence of alternative stable states of the underlying system, and, indeed, we include the potential to shift to alternate states that provide lower function delivery as one of several mechanisms underpinning the provision of resilient ecosystem functions. However, there are many other factors that operate at finer scales of biological organisation, such as the species--level (e.g. genetic variability, sensitivity to environmental change, adaptive phenotypic plasticity, Allee effects) and the community--level (e.g. correlation between response and effect traits, functional redundancy, network interaction structure). Most importantly, we feel that a focus on system state (relative to an assumed equilibrium) is not particularly helpful. The ecological resilience literature is somewhat vague with regards to what aspects of the system should be resistant in the face of an environmental perturbation. The relevant response is varyingly defined as the system 'state', the 'persistence of relationships among state variables within the system', or the 'ways of functioning ' [4]. In our review, we promote ...

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Focusing the Meaning(s) of Resilience: Resilience as a Descriptive Concept and a Boundary Object

Cited by 1,115 publications

References 77 publications

Towards a regenerative paradigm for the built environment

Towards a regenerative paradigm for the built environment

Vulnerability assessment to climate change of three ecosystem-based forest management projects in Quebec

A Synthesis is Emerging between Biodiversity–Ecosystem Function and Ecological Resilience Research: Reply to Mori

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