Unearthing time-honored examples of nature-based solutions

Advancing equity and justice through community science programming in design, construction, and research of a nature-based solution: the Duwamish Floating Wetlands Project

“…Because community involvement requires an adaptive and flexible approach, measuring success in traditional scientific ways may be difficult or even inappropriate in social aspects of NBS (La Rosa et al 2021 ). After much team discussion, ultimately it was determined that implementing a survey to measure community successes would be detrimental to the spirit of the program; it would make the community members (many of which came from vulnerable groups) the subjects of study and might reinforce feelings of distrust that many residents of the Duwamish Valley have towards academics, as the Duwamish Valley residents have been historically over-studied to fatigue as part of the Superfund cleanup efforts.…”

“…Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) can be defined as urban ecosystem-inspired designs that address local to global intertwined socio-ecological issues and are best implemented and assessed through close collaboration with communities, stakeholders and professionals (IUCN 2022 ; Bayulken et al 2021 ). Effective NBS projects are crafted to address specific socio-ecological problems as defined by locals, and as such, often require a flexible, adaptive and inclusive approach within their design, assessment, and management (La Rosa et al 2021 , p. 331). Despite the potential for NBS to simultaneously strengthen social and ecological systems, there are limited NBS projects to date that place social equity and justice at the forefront of their ecological goals, compelling researchers to call for “ just nature-based solutions” (Cousins 2021 ), and reflections on deeper forms of citizen participation and equitable inclusion within NBS (Kiss et al 2022 , p. 12).…”

What can we learn from Julius Gyula Fábos, an admirable socio-ecological scholar-practitioner?

“…Edgar Schein defines a scholar-practitioner as a scholar who is ''dedicated to generating new knowledge that is useful to practitioners.'' (cited in Wasserman and Kram 2009, p.12) [2] Socio-ecological practice is yet another term in the nomenclature of ecopracticology that was coined, defined, and has been used by the SEPR authors (e.g., Al-Kodmany 2020; Daniels et al 2021;Douglas 2020;Forester 2020;La Rosa 2019;La Rosa et al 2021;Liao 2019;Palko 2021;Steiner 2020;Wang 2019;Xiang 2019a). As an umbrella term, socio-ecological practice refers to "the human action and social process that take place in specific socio-ecological context to bring about a secure, harmonious, and sustainable socio-ecological condition serving human beings' need for survival, development, and flourishing.…”

“…I examined these two pieces and his other pertinent scholarly works, including coauthored publications, through what may be metaphorically called "a lens of ecopracticology." This is a curated collection of constructs about ecopracticology's object of study, body of knowledge, and ways of knowing that I assembled eclectically from the works by various SEPR authors (e.g., Forester 2020Forester , 2022La Rosa et al 2021;Liao 2019;Meine 2020;Palko 2021;Steiner 2020;Wang 2019;Wang et al 2022;Xiang 2017Xiang , 2019aXiang , 2021Yan 2020). It ably allowed me to identify-in a fresh, systematic, and meaningful light-the meritorious ecopracticological characteristics of Julius Fábos' international greenway-planning scholarship that helped earn him the said recognition as an admirable socio-ecological scholar-practitioner and deserve our emulation.…”

In sharing and explaining the history of socio-ecological practice, we must act as intergenerational mediators between the past and present historymakers

“…As researchers of socio-ecological practice, we subscribe to the time-honored ancient wisdom that history is a teacher of life and a guide to action, and aspire to grasp and share inspirations and lessons from our ancestors for our present and future (Antrop 2005;La Rosa et al 2021;Xiang 2019 and. As such, not only do we study and reconstruct the history of socio-ecological practice, but we also share and explain it to our contemporaries.…”