Coping with Complexity and Organizational Interests in Natural Resource Management

To cope with the daunting challenges posed by system complexity while maximizing their organizational interests, resource management institutions must implement strategies aimed at reducing some of the particular dimensions of complexity. Virtually all of the recent initiatives to improve resource management—ecosystem management, adaptive management, stakeholder negotiation, disturbance prevention, multiple mandates for resource management agencies, resource homogenization, restoration ecology, the creation of protected areas, the restoration of local-user rights, and algorithmic resource exploitation rules—are vulnerable to inappropriate interest-driven simplifications, many of which result from patterns of perverse learning. A research agenda designed to identify better means of coping with complexity and the effects of organizational interests could help to improve resource and environmental management. Received 4 October 2000; accepted 15 June 2001.     

Ten Heuristics for Interdisciplinary Modeling Projects

Complex environmental and ecological problems require collaborative, interdisciplinary efforts. A common approach to integrating disciplinary perspectives on these problems is to develop simulation models in which the linkages between system components are explicitly represented. There is, however, little guidance in the literature on how such models should be developed through collaborative teamwork. In this paper, we offer a set of heuristics (rules of thumb) that address a range of challenges associated with this enterprise, including the selection of team members, negotiating a consensus view of the research problem, prototyping and refining models, the role of sensitivity analysis, and the importance of team communication. These heuristics arose from a comparison of our experiences with several interdisciplinary modeling projects. We use one such experience—a project in which natural scientists, social scientists, and local residents came together to investigate the sustainability of small indigenous communities in the Arctic—to illustrate the heuristics. Received 27 April 2001; accepted 12 November 2001.     

Whole-Ecosystem Experiments: Replication Versus Realism: The Need for Ecosystem-Scale Experiments

The results of bottle and mesocosm experiments were compared with those obtained in whole-ecosystem experiments at the Experimental Lakes Area. Unless they can be cleverly designed to mimic major ecosystem processes and community compositions, smaller-scale experiments often give highly replicable, but spurious, answers. Problems with appropriate scaling are difficult to deduce without direct comparisons with whole-ecosystem experiments. Reasons are many, but include inappropriate spatial scales to include whole communities, in particular predators and nocturnally active animals; temporal scales that are too short to assess accurately the response of slow-responding organisms and biogeochemical processes; and elimination of key littoral–pelagic and catchment–lake interactions. Identical studies of limnological processes in lakes of a large range of sizes reveals that scaling correction is also necessary when extrapolating from small lakes to large ones. Accurate management decisions cannot be made with confidence unless ecosystem scales are studied. Received 26 March 1998; accepted 14 May 1998.     

Reconciling Ecosystem Rehabilitation and Service Reliability Mandates in Large Technical Systems: Findings and Implications of Three Major US Ecosystem Management Initiatives for Managing Human-Dominated Aquatic-Terrestrial Ecosystems

How can decision makers reconcile the demand for increasingly reliable services drawn from the environment (including water and power) with the desire for both a better environment and more environmental amenities? In this paper, which is based on US case studies of ecosystem rehabilitation initiatives in the San Francisco Bay-Delta, the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest, and the Florida Everglades, we focus on several notable problems in current management practice. We assess the role of adaptive management and identify five areas of major innovation by which ecologists and the authorities that operate large water and hydropower systems attempt to reconcile the tension between maintaining service reliability and promoting ecological rehabilitation. The implications of the findings for a wider framework within which ecosystems can be matched to the most appropriate management regime are related specifically to aquatic-terrestrial ecosystems. Finally, we emphasize the importance of redefining ecosystem functions and services so that the inherent conflict between high-reliability services and ecosystem rehabilitation can be reconciled.     

Capacity-Building for Natural Resource Management: Lessons from the Health Sector

This paper examines capacity-building measures used by the health sector relevant to natural resource management (NRM) using the delivery of two programs in Australia through its recently formalized 56 community-based regional NRM Boards as a reference point. The delivery of NRM outcomes through devolved governance arrangements has been hampered by inadequate capacity in other countries (e.g., New Zealand, Canada). The inherent complexities of NRM, coupled with professional “comfort zones,” often limit actors from looking to other sectors confronting similar issues. This paper summarizes findings from ∼70 sources in health reviewing nine major capacity-building measures. The outcomes of research evaluating the relative benefits and disbenefits of applying these measures are discussed. The paper identifies several opportunities to trial some of these measures in NRM.

Mobile Link Organisms and Ecosystem Functioning: Implications for Ecosystem Resilience and Management

Current natural resource management seldom takes the ecosystem functions performed by organisms that move between systems into consideration. Organisms that actively move in the landscape and connect habitats in space and time are here termed “mobile links.” They are essential components in the dynamics of ecosystem development and ecosystem resilience (that is, buffer capacity and opportunity for reorganization) that provide ecological memory (that is, sources for reorganization after disturbance). We investigated the effects of such mobile links on ecosystem functions in aquatic as well as terrestrial environments. We identify three main functional categories: resource, genetic, and process linkers and suggest that the diversity within functional groups of mobile links is a central component of ecosystem resilience. As the planet becomes increasingly dominated by humans, the magnitude, frequency, timing, spatial extent, rate, and quality of such organism-mediated linkages are being altered. We argue that global environmental change can lead to (a) the decline of essential links in functional groups providing pollination, seed dispersal, and pest control; (b) the linking of previously disconnected areas, for example, the spread of vector-borne diseases and invasive species; and (c) the potential for existing links to become carriers of toxic substances, such as persistent organic compounds. We conclude that knowledge of interspatial exchange via mobile links needs to be incorporated into management and policy-making decisions in order to maintain ecosystem resilience and hence secure the capacity of ecosystems to supply the goods and services essential to society. Received 23 April 2001; accepted 17 June 2002.     

Natural Resource Management: Historical Lessons from Indonesia

This paper uses a variety of historical evidence from Indonesia to explore the conditions for sustainable management of natural resources. In the agricultural sphere, history gives reason for optimism regarding the ability of individuals to conserve and improve soil resources on an uncoordinated, anarchic basis under systems of intensive smallholder farming and agroforestry. It also suggests that this ability may be enhanced, rather than eroded, both by population growth and by the commercialization of agriculture. When it comes to the management of forests and fisheries and the conservation of nature, by contrast, there is less reason for optimism. If sustainable solutions are to be found in these spheres, the historical evidence suggests that they will involve political hierarchy, and will depend on the honouring of a social contract in which the state serves the public interest while retaining the powers of coercion which it needs in order to do just that.     

Integration of Ecosystem Services into Ecological Risk Assessment for Implementation in Ecosystem-Based River Management: A Case Study of the Yellow River,China

Ecological risk assessment (ERA) is a scientific tool used to support ecosystem-based management (EBM), but most current ERA methods consider only a few indices of particular species or components. Such limitations restrict the scope of results so that they are insufficient to reflect the integrated risk characterization of an ecosystem, thereby inhibiting the application of ERA in EBM. We incorporate the concept of ecosystem services into ERA and develop an improved ERA framework to create a comprehensive risk map of an ecosystem, accounting for multiple human activities and ecosystem services. Using the Yellow River as a case study, we show how this framework enables the implementation of integrated risk characterization and prioritization of the most important ecological risk issues in the ecosystem-based river management of the Yellow River. This framework can help practitioners facilitate better implementation of ERA within EBM in rivers or any target ecosystem.     

Resource Management for Ad-Hoc Wireless Networks with Cluster Organization

Boosted by technology advancements, government and commercial interest, ad-hoc wireless networks are emerging as a serious platform for distributed mission-critical applications. Guaranteeing QoS in this environment is a hard problem because several applications may share the same resources in the network, and mobile ad-hoc wireless networks (MANETs) typically exhibit high variability in network topology and communication quality. In this paper we introduce DYNAMIQUE, a resource management infrastructure for MANETs. We present a resource model for multi-application admission control that optimizes the application admission utility, defined as a combination of the QoS satisfaction ratio. A method based on external adaptation (shrinking QoS for existing applications and later QoS expansion) is introduced as a way to reduce computation complexity by reducing the search space. We designed an application admission protocol that uses a greedy heuristic to improve application utility. For this, the admission control considers network topology information from the routing layer. Specifically, the admission protocol takes benefit from a cluster network organization, as defined by ad-hoc routing protocols such as CBRP and LANMAR. Information on cluster membership and cluster head elections allows the admission protocol to minimize control signaling and to improve application quality by localizing task mapping.     

Linking Freshwater Flows and Ecosystem Services Appropriated by People: The Case of the Baltic Sea Drainage Basin

Humanity's dependence on ecosystem support is “mentally hidden” to large segments of society; it has no price in the market and is seldom accounted for in decision making. Similarly, the needs of ecosystems for fresh water for generation of nature's services are largely invisible. Freshwater assessments predominantly have focused on human uses of liquid water in rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. We estimated the spatial appropriation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems—the ecological footprint—of the 85 million inhabitants in the Baltic Sea drainage basin with regard to consumption of food and timber and waste assimilation of nutrients and carbon dioxide. We also estimated the amount of fresh water—the water vapor flow—that the inhabitants depend upon for their appropriation of these ecosystem services. The ecological footprint estimate corresponds to an area as large as 8.5–9.5 times the Baltic Sea and its drainage basin with a per capita ecosystem appropriation of 220,000–250,000 m². This large estimate is mainly attributed to carbon sequestering by marine ecosystems and forests. The water vapor flow of the ecological footprint of forests, wetlands, agriculture, and inland water bodies for making the human appropriation of ecosystem services possible is estimated at 1175–2875 km³ y⁻¹. Human dependence on water vapor flows for ecosystem services is as great as 54 times the amount of freshwater runoff that is assessed and managed in society. Decision making on an increasingly human-dominated planet will have to address explicitly the critical interdependencies between freshwater flows and the capacity of ecosystems to generate services. We advocate a dynamic ecohydrological landscape-management approach upstream and downstream in watersheds to reduce unintentional impacts, irreversible change, and further loss of freshwater resources, ecosystem services, and resilience. Received 6 October 1998; accepted 30 March 1999.     

Adaptive Learning Networks: Developing Resource Management Knowledge through Social Learning Forums

The purpose of this paper is to explore adaptive learning networks as a contemporary means by which new resource management knowledge can develop through social learning forums. The paper draws upon recent discussions within two disparate literatures on indigenous knowledge and network theory and is grounded in fieldwork with two Anishinaabe First Nations in northwestern Ontario. The paper has three objectives. First, problematize the principle of representation as a basic way of including the knowledge of indigenous peoples within natural resource and environmental management. Second, utilize network theory as a way to weave together adaptive learning by individuals into a cross-cultural social learning process. Finally, propose an adaptive natural resources and environmental framework that brings together, through a social learning process, the different ways individuals, indigenous peoples and resource managers, perceive environmental change.     

流域水质管理系统构建的理论、方法和实践

随着工农业的发展及乡村都市化 ,淡水资源的短缺成为全球性的问题。淡水资源的短缺 ,一方面是对淡水需求量增加 ,供不应求。另一方面是水体水质恶化 ,水资源退化。保护淡水资源是一项持久性的艰巨任务 ,其中水资源管理工具评价预测各种管理措施对水资源的影响 ,是必不可缺少的。工业和生活废水对水体的点源污染问题 ,早在2 0世纪 2 0年代就被意识到 ,并开展了一些水资源的保护和管理研究工作。自 192 5第一个水质数学模型Ｓｔｒｅｅｔｅｒ Ｐｈｅｌｐｓ[1] 用于模拟水环境中ＢＯＤ和ＤＯ的动态变化研究以来 ,出现了许多水质模型并用于河流、…     

Ecosystem Management of Desertified Shrublands in Israel

The objectives of this study were to understand the ecological processes and possible management strategies in desertified shrublands. We hypothesized that biological production and diversity in desertified shrublands in the Negev in Israel are low due to water, soil, and nutrient leakage from the ecosystem. We designed a series of field experiments in order to examine (a) whether source–sink relationships exist between the crusted soil and the shrub patches, (b) whether resources (water, soil, and nutrients) leak from the system, and (c) whether management, which changes the landscape mosaic by introducing new sink patches that reduce leakage of resources, may increase productivity and diversity. The results indicate that the low number of shrub patches, which serve as sinks for resources, leads to water, soil, and nutrient leakage from the ecosystem. This leakage reduces ecosystem production and diversity. We found that artificially created pits, which act as sinks for resources, decrease leakage and increase biomass production and annual plant species diversity. Based on the experimental results, we developed conceptual models for shrubland desertification and ecosystem management. The models are based on a source–sink relationship between two patch types characteristic of shrublands. The models relate landscape productivity to the number of sink patches and suggest that, in cases where there are too few sinks, artificially created sink patches should be added. Management methods were developed to reduce resource leakage in the desertified shrubland of the Negev. Methods included construction of man-made pits in the landscape that add resource-enriched patches to the landscape. These patches are used to create parks consisting of clusters of trees integrated into a matrix of shrubs and herbaceous vegetation. The managed parks are used for recreational purposes and for rangeland. Received 8 July 1997; accepted 7 July 1998.     

Managing Critical Transition Zones

Ecosystems that function as critical transition zones (CTZs) among terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats are closely connected to the ecosystems adjacent to them and are characterized by a rapid flux of materials and organisms. CTZs play various roles, including mediating water flows, accumulating sediments and organic matter, processing nutrients, and providing opportunities for recreation. They are particularly difficult to manage because they tend to be small, albeit important, components of large watersheds, and managers may not have control over the entire landscape. Moreover, they are often the focus of intensive human activity. Consequently, CTZs are critically important zones, and their preservation and protection are likely to require unique collaboration among scientists, managers, and stakeholders. Scientists can learn a great deal from the study of these ecosystems, taking advantage of small size and the importance of fluxes, but a good understanding of adaptive management strategies is needed to establish a dialogue with managers and stakeholders on technical and management issues. An understanding of risk analysis is also important to help set meaningful goals and establish logical strategies that include all of the interested parties. Successful restoration of a CTZ is the best test of the quality of knowledge about its structure and function. Much has already been learned about coastal CTZs through restoration projects, and the large number of such projects involving riparian CTZs in particular suggests that there is considerable opportunity for fruitful collaborations between scientists and managers. Received 25 February 2000; accepted 6 February 2001.     

Trust-building, Knowledge Generation and Organizational Innovations: The Role of a Bridging Organization for Adaptive Comanagement of a Wetland Landscape around Kristianstad, Sweden

The literature on ecosystem management and assessment is increasingly focusing on social capacity to enhance ecosystem resilience. Organizational flexibility, participatory approaches to learning, and knowledge generation for responding adequately to environmental change have been highlighted but not critically assessed. The small, flexible municipal organization, Ecomuseum Kristianstads Vattenrike (EKV) in southern Sweden, has identified win-win situations and gained broad support and legitimacy for ecosystem management among a diversity of actors in the region. Navigating the existing legal-political framework, EKV has built a loose social network of local stewards and key persons from organizations at municipal and higher societal levels. As a ‘bridging organization’, EKV has created arenas for trust-building, knowledge generation, collaborative learning, preference formation, and conflicts solving among actors in relation to specific environmental issues. Ad hoc projects are developed as issues arise by mobilizing individuals from the social network. Our results suggest that the EKV approach to adaptive comanagement has enhanced the social capacity to respond to unpredictable change and developed a trajectory towards resilience of a desirable social-ecological system.