Top 40 questions in coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) research

Abstract

Understanding and managing coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) is a central challenge of the 21st century, but more focus is needed to pursue the most important questions within this vast field given limited research capacity and funding. We present 40 important questions for CHANS research, identified through a two-part crowdsourcing exercise within the CHANS community. We solicited members of the International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS-Net) to submit up to three questions that they considered transformative, receiving 540 questions from 207 respondents. After editing for clarity and consistency, we asked the network's members to each evaluate a random subset of 20 questions in importance on a scale from 1 (least important) to 7 (extremely important). Questions on land use and agriculture topped the list, with a median importance ranking of 5.7, followed by questions of scale, climate change and energy, sustainability and development, adaptation and resilience, in addition to seven other categories. We identified 40 questions with a median importance of 6.0 or above, which we highlight as the current view of researchers active in the field as research questions to pursue in order to maximize impact on understanding and managing coupled human and natural systems for achieving sustainable development goals and addressing emerging global challenges.

Integrating the Water Planetary Boundary With Water Management From Local to Global Scales

“…However, developing generalizable understanding of the spatiotemporal scales spanned by the water cycle has been a longstanding challenge in hydrology, water management, and at their intersection (Blöschl et al, ; Blöschl & Sivapalan, ; Daniell & Barreteau, ; Klemeš, ). In particular, recent work has identified translating understanding of coupled human and natural systems across scales as a key future research priority to provide management‐relevant science (Konar et al, ; Kramer et al, ). While sociohydrology has been suggested as a potential tool to bridge the gaps between watershed‐scale and global‐scale water management (Di Baldassarre et al, ), specific approaches for integrating global water sustainability targets with local water management remain lacking.…”

Fisheries Volume 45 Number 5 May 2020

“…In addition, university curricula generally do not emphasize CHANS science and practice. In a survey of 180 academics (and 27 non-academics) affi liated with the International Network of Research on CHANS, education ranked 10th of 12 categories in terms of importance for the "top 40" questions in CHANS research, placing it well behind categories such as land-use change, climate change, and sustainable development (Kramer et al 2017 ). Only two education-related questions made the top 40; neither focused on training the next generation of CHANS scientists, much less updating university curricula to encompass CHANS.…”

Integrating social and ecological data to model metapopulation dynamics in coupled human and natural systems

“…Integrating these data is a serious challenge that has been identified as one of the most pressing questions in CHANS research (Kramer et al. ). CHANS frequently have feedback loops, spatiotemporal heterogeneity, and thresholds in system state, which can result in emergent nonlinear dynamics that traditional statistical models fail to predict (Alberti et al.…”

“…CHANS tend to be idiosyncratic and context-specific, requiring data integration methods that are flexible enough to be readily adapted to novel data formats and systems. Integrating these data is a serious challenge that has been identified as one of the most pressing questions in CHANS research (Kramer et al 2017). CHANS frequently have feedback loops, spatiotemporal heterogeneity, and thresholds in system state, which can result in emergent nonlinear dynamics that traditional statistical models fail to predict (Alberti et al 2011, Liu et al 2015.…”