Using Strategic Adaptive Management to Facilitate Implementation of Environmental Flow Programs in Complex Social-Ecological Systems

Abstract

Freshwater resource management is becoming increasingly complex as human pressure increases on available water resources, and as more participatory transparent decision-making frameworks are being advocated within water management. Complexity is further increased when environmental flow programs are integrated into existing water management programs. Adaptive management frameworks present an obvious choice for integration and implementation of environmental flows, but have so far failed to become the dominant framework. The research presented here highlights the ability of a strategic adaptive management (SAM) approach within an environmental flow program in the Murray Darling Basin of Australia to facilitate planning and implementation of environmental flows. The SAM approach did show that adaptive management can deal with the complexities of designing and implementing environmental flows within complex social-ecological systems, but can have limitations in the long-term. The approach highlighted the importance of social processes within adaptive management, emphasizing that a focus on inclusiveness, commitment, and transparency aimed at building understanding, trust, and ownership are key processes for implementation. In this specific case study, successful implementation was achieved through structured co-design of initial programs and participatory decision-making throughout. However, the SAM approach also showed that adaptive management is vulnerable to challenges in the long-term when resources and expertize change.

River basin governance enabling pathways for sustainable management: A comparative study between Australia, Brazil, China and France

“…It challenges existing governance concepts and compels actors to evaluate system dynamics and feedback loops that include their own position. This process facilitates double and triple loop learning, considered an essential requirement for an adaptive management framework (Pahl-Wostl 2009 ), which despite its attractiveness has failed to become the dominant framework to date (Connalin et al 2018 ).…”

A trickle, not a flood: environmental watering in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia

“…While processes for adaptive management have been implemented for at least one specific project (Conallin et al 2018), as far as we are aware there are no governance arrangements in place that would allow water managers, scientists and policy decision makers to share findings and lessons learned, at Basinscale, in a coproductive way. Without such processes, and a unified, coordinated reporting approach between the Commonwealth and states, it is difficult to see how claims can be substantiated for a truly strategic adaptive management process, as first used for environmental monitoring in South African National Parks (Roux and Foxcroft 2011).…”

Speaking the same language: can the sustainable development goals translate the needs of inland fisheries into irrigation decisions?

“…The Deloitte Access Economics economists commissioned by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority conclude that 'ythis is a function of both improved amenity values associated with the recreational fishing experience, and through increases in the populations of fish with economic value, predominantly Murray cod and golden perch' (Murray-Darling Basin Authority 2012). As implementation of the Basin Plan continues, the MDB community of scientists, natural resource managers and the public are waking up to the realisation that delivering on the Basin Plan objectives and striking a balance between irrigated agriculture and the sustainability of fisheries will require a far more nuanced approach than 'just adding water' (Finlayson et al 2017;Conallin et al 2018). However, this multi-faceted approach to recovering native fish populations had been around for some time, most prominently in the form of the Native Fish Strategy (NFS; Murray-Darling Basin Commission 2004; Koehn and Lintermans 2012).…”