Adaptive management for a turbulent future.

TLDR: The conceptual underpinnings of adaptive management are simple; there will always be inherent uncertainty and unpredictability in the dynamics and behavior of complex social-ecological systems, but management decisions must still be made, and whenever possible, learning should incorporate learning into management.

About: This article is published in Journal of Environmental Management.The article was published on 2011-05-01 and is currently open access. It has received 433 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Adaptive management & Ecosystem management.

Figures

Fig. 1. Adaptive management, often characterized as ‘learning by doing’, is a formal iterative process of resource management that acknowledges uncertainty and achieves management objectives by increasing system knowledge through a structured feedback process. As illustrated, integral to the adaptive management process is both a decision component and an opportunity to learn. Structured decision making (gray circles), a term often confused with adaptive management, is an organized and transparent approach to the decision process for identifying and evaluating alternatives and justifying complex decisions; however, structured decision making does not necessitate the iteration and consequential higher order learning (white circles) inherent in adaptive management.

Fig. 2. The learning and inference possible among approaches to natural resource management varies, increasing from little or none in uncorroborated learning to much in the horse race approach (active adaptive management).

Fig. 3. Adaptive management and scenarios are complementary approaches to understanding complex systems. Adaptive management functions best when both uncertainty and controllability are high, which means the potential for learning is high, and the system can be manipulated (adapted from Peterson et al., 2003).

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What contributions have the authors mentioned in the paper "Adaptive management for a turbulent future" ?

Adaptive management has explicit structure, including careful elucidation of goals, identification of alternative management objectives and hypotheses of causation, and procedures for the collection of data followed by evaluation and reiteration. 

Q2. What are the concepts of adaptive management?

The conceptual underpinnings for adaptive management are simple; there will always be inherent uncertainty and unpredictability in the dynamics and behavior of complex social-ecological systems as a result of non-linear interactions among components and emergence, yet management decisions must still be made. 

Q3. What can be done to help with the success of adaptive governance?

Bridging organizations, enabling legislation and government policies can also contribute to the success of an adaptive governance framework, whereby governance creates a vision and management actualizes the vision (Folke et al., 2005). 

Q4. What is the key to the success of adaptive management?

Central to the success of the structured decision making process is the requirement to clearly articulate fundamental objectives, explicitly acknowledge uncertainty, and respond transparently to all stakeholder interests in the decision process. 

Q5. What is the role of bridging organizations in facilitating effective transition to a new policy?

Engaging stakeholders, implementing change at a suitable rate and providing outreach to keep the public informed are all important for new environmental policy to be perceived as positive and for a successful transition to a new policy regime (Marshall, 2007). 

Q6. What is the role of bridging organizations in achieving environmental sustainability?

In addition, bridging organizations have the capacity to reduce transaction costs, and provide a mechanism to enforce adherence to desired policies, despite their lack of regulatory authority (Hahn et al., 2006). 

Q7. What is the role of bridging organizations in achieving the desired outcomes?

Being independent of stakeholders in a social-ecological system,bridging organizations are able to negotiate with stakeholders and advocate multiple positions (Brown, 1993). 

Q8. What is the role of bridging organizations in facilitating adaptive comanagement and governance?

Bridging organizations play a critical role in facilitating adaptive comanagement and governance, and are essential to managing for resilience in social-ecological systems (Olsson et al., 2007). 

Q9. What is the main purpose of adaptive management?

Since its initial introduction, adaptive management has been hailed as a solution to endless trial and error approaches to complex natural resource management challenges. 

Q10. What are the challenges that humanity faces today?

These challenges include climate change, global land-cover and land-use change, ocean chemistry and circulation patterns, and fossil energy and water shortages. 

Q11. What are the factors that are critical in building resilience in social-ecological systems?

these factors are critical in building resilience in social-ecological systems, as they help to protect the system from the failure of management decisions under uncertainty (i.e., imperfect information). 

Q12. What is the main reason for the lack of communication and cooperation between institutions at even small scales?

The lack of communication and cooperation between institutions at even small scales further illuminates that bridging organizations may help bring about effective management of natural resources at multiple scales (Roy et al., 2008). 

Q13. What is the role of bridging organizations in the management of social-ecological systems?

This unique role in the management of social-ecological systems affords bridging organizations the capacity to catalyze the formation of policies that are flexible and reflective of thepanarchyof ecosystems and institutions (Brown,1993). 

Q14. What is the role of bridging organizations?

bridging organizations should act as mini think-tanks that facilitate communication between institutions, incubate new ideas for environmental management, and provide a forum for coming to agreements on contentious issues (Brown et al., 2001).