Resilience (Sustainability)

Briefing: community resilience to extreme weather

by Chris Goodier

Territori sostenibili e resilienti: la prospettiva dei servizi ecosistemici

by Scolozzi Rocco

Territorio, 60/2012 (Franco Angeli)

Gli ecosistemi di un territorio, attraverso l’erogazione dei servizi ecosistemici (SE), forniscono un supporto... more Gli ecosistemi di un territorio, attraverso l’erogazione dei servizi ecosistemici (SE), forniscono un supporto insostituibile alla qualità di vita dei suoi abitanti e i fattori di base per uno sviluppo economico durevole. Tali servizi costituiscono il capitale naturale del territorio ma anche una sorta di assicurazione nei confronti di eventi estremi.
Qui si presentano i primi risultati di un metodo speditivo originale. Emerge che ogni anno gli ecosistemi italiani erogano beni e utilità paragonabili (per difetto) a 71,3 mld di euro. Più rilevante è la dinamica di questi valori: in soli 10 anni alcune province sembrano perdere più del 3% del valore totale e fino al 18%, considerando specifici SE. La prospettiva dei SE integrata nella valutazione e pianificazione territoriale potrebbe supportare strategie di sviluppo più consapevoli dei processi ecologici e più lungimiranti

Biodiversity and Complexity of Rice Farm Ecosystems: An Empirical Assessment

by Debal Deb

Stewardship, learning, and memory in disaster resilience

by Keith Tidball

In this contribution, we propose and explore the following hypothesis: civic ecology practices, including urban... more In this contribution, we propose and explore the following hypothesis: civic ecology practices, including urban community forestry, community gardening, and other self‐organized forms of stewardship of green spaces in cities, are manifestations of how memories of the role of greening in healing can be instrumentalized through social learning to foster social–ecological system (SES) resilience following crisis and disaster. Further, we propose that civic ecology communities of practice within and across cities help to leverage these memories into effective practices, and that these communities of practice serve as urban iterations of the collaborative and adaptive management practices that play a role in SES resilience in more rural settings. We present two urban examples to build support for this hypothesis: the Living Memorials Project in post‐9/11 New York City, and community forestry in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. These cases demonstrate what we refer to as a memorialization mechanism that leads to feedbacks critical to SES resilience. The process begins immediately after a crisis, when a spontaneous and collective memorialization of lost ones through gardening and tree planting ensues, following which a community of practice emerges to act upon and apply these memories to social learning about greening practices. This in turn may lead to new kinds of learning, including about collective efficacy and ecosystem services production, through a kind of feedback between remembering, learning, and enhancing individual, social, and environmental well‐being. This process, in the case of greening in cities, may confer SES resilience, through contributing to both psychological–social resistance and resilience and ecosystem benefits.

Applying Resilience Thinking to Questions of Policy for Pastoralist Systems: Lessons from the Gabra of Northern Kenya

by Lance Robinson

A Complex-Systems Approach to Pastoral Commons

by Lance Robinson

Forskningsprojektet LEO - en presentation.

by Svante Fischer

Bratt, Peter  and Grönwall, Richard, ed. Makt, kult och plats.: Två seminarier arrangerade av Stockholms läns museum under 2009 och 2010.  Stockholm, 2011.

”The Urban Mind is the Normalcy of Urbanity”

by Svante Fischer

Co-authored with Frands Herschend

Published in:

Paul Sinclair and Gullög Nordquist, eds.  The Urban Mind: Cultural and Environmental Dynamics.  Studies in Global Archaeology 15. Uppsala 2010.

The three sections presented here – (1) Changing Urbanities: Revision and Radical
Critique, (2) Threshold... more The three sections presented here – (1) Changing Urbanities: Revision and Radical
Critique, (2) Threshold Effects in Urban Society, and (3) Resourceful Urbanity Triggers
Language Resilience – are based on the contributions to the Urban Mind project, frames 3
and 4. In these frames the ‘urban mind’ is looked upon as the normalcy of urbanity.
The authors stress the following in their discussion. (1) To the urban mind, the urban
tends to be a world of its own created by humans in opposition to the non-urban, which
can be termed in various ways, such as nature, the rural, the countryside, the archipelago
and so on. (2) The urban mind is aware of no more than two kinds of latent crises
threatening urbanity: (2a) a crisis solved by means of remodelling urban life space, social
norms and interaction, and (2b) a crisis remedied by means of an ideological change rooted
in an understanding of the non-urban. (3) Language interacts with urbanity to become a
typical outcome as well as a dynamic generator of the urban mind.

”The Fall and Decline of the Roman Urban Mind”

by Svante Fischer

Co-authored with Lejdegård, Hans, and Victor, Helena

Published in: Paul Sinclair and Gullög Nordquist, eds.  The Urban Mind: Cultural and Environmental Dynamics.  Studies in Global Archaeology 15. Uppsala 2010.

This chapter discusses the 5th-century west Roman imperial residences of Rome and
its substitutes Arles and... more This chapter discusses the 5th-century west Roman imperial residences of Rome and
its substitutes Arles and Ravenna, as understood within the framework of an imperialist
ideology of urbanism, the “Roman urban mind”. During the late Roman Empire, the city of
Rome was the central focus of the old Roman infrastructure. Ideally, the highest echelons
of the imperial administration also ought to be located in Rome. There was an underlying
idea that the purpose of the Roman Empire was to sustain the city of Rome – the capital
of the world – and its ever-growing population. In this paper the authors argue that in
spite of the fascination with Rome as the caput mundi, urban sustainability and resilience
were problematic matters within the West Roman Empire. The imperial state apparatus
proved incapable of resolving these issues in the face of barbarian attacks and internal
strife. This spelled the end for the Roman urban mind.

Promoting Health and Well-Being by Managing for Social–Ecological Resilience: the Potential of Integrating Ecohealth and Water Resources Management Approaches

by Martin Bunch

Bunch, M. J., Morrison, K. E., Parkes, M. W., & Venema, H. D. (2011). Promoting health and well-being by managing for social–ecological resilience: the potential of integrating ecohealth and water resources management approaches. Ecology and Society, 16(1), 6. [Online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss11/art16/.

In coupled social–ecological systems, the same driving forces can result in combined social and environmental health... more In coupled social–ecological systems, the same driving forces can result in combined social and environmental health inequities, hazards, and impacts. Policies that decrease social inequities and improve social cohesion, however, also have the potential to improve health outcomes and to minimize and offset the drivers of ecosystem change. Actions that address both biophysical and social environments have the potential to create a "double dividend" that improves human health, while also promoting sustainable development. One promising approach to managing the complex, reciprocal interactions among ecosystems, society, and health is the integration of the ecohealth approach (which holds that human health and well-being are both dependent on ecosystems and are important outcomes of ecosystem management) with watershed-based water resources management. Using key management concepts such as resilience, such approaches can help reduce vulnerability to natural hazards, maintain ecological flows of water and the provision of other ecological services, and promote long-term sustainability of coupled human and natural systems. Priorities for understanding and realizing health benefits of watershed management include (i) addressing poverty and reducing inequities, (ii) promoting resilience (for health) in watersheds, and (iii) applying watersheds as a context for intersectoral management tools and policy integration. Examples of work linking health and watershed management demonstrate that not only is appreciation of complex systems important, but an effective approach is participatory and transdisciplinary and gives attention to equity and historical context.


Key words: ecohealth; ecosystem approach; environment and health; environmental determinants of health; health promotion; integrated water resources management; resilience; social determinants of health; watershed governance; watershed management

Post Industrial Possibilities and Urban Social Ecologies

by Damian White

Thinking about the legacy of Murray Bookchin after his death for environmental social theory and politics. Yes, he could be a big pain in the ass. However, his focus on urban ecology, post Malthusian social ecological politics, post scarcity focus, ecological humanism and attempt to initiate a discussion about the need for a 'green industrial revolution' was seminal and still unacknowledged and much of his broad aspirations were proposing an much more interesting agenda than anything being proposed in much environmental sociology, cultural geography or political science.

Quantifying the Economic Insurance Value of Ecosystem Resilience – The Walker et al. (2010) Case Study from South East Australia

by Moritz Drupp

Ecosystem resilience, i.e. an ecosystem's ability to maintain its basic functions and controls under disturbances... more Ecosystem resilience, i.e. an ecosystem's ability to maintain its basic functions and controls under disturbances (Holling, 1973), draws attention to the problems of complex ecosystem dynamics and represents a system attribute that has not been adequately appreciated by economic valuation of the environment (see, e.g., Mäler (2008)). Resilience is seen as a core question of sustainability science (Kates et al., 2001) and has lately received increasing attention in the environmental economist community (see Bateman et al., 2011), yet only a few studies exist that scrutinize the applicability of this innovative approach. This paper builds on the works of Walker et al. (2010), who are the first to provide a measurement of the total economic value of resilience for a case study from South East Australia, and Baumgärtner and Strunz (2010), who derive the economic insurance value of ecosystem resilience in a simple ecological-economic model. This paper develops a (quasi-)dynamic ecological-economic model that combines the approaches of Walker et al. (2010) and Baumgärtner and Strunz (2010), provides a first estimate of the economics insurance value of ecosystem resilience, and discusses the potential for further economic evaluation of ecosystem resilience.

The resilience of formal and informal tourism enterprises to disasters – reef tourism in Phuket, Thailand

by C. Michael Hall

Biggs, D., Hall, C.M. & Stoeckl, N., The resilience of formal and informal tourism enterprises to disasters – reef tourism in Phuket. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, forthcoming <DOI: 10.1080/09669582.2011.630080>.

Please note that this is the uncorrected draft version. For the final version please consult the journal website.

This paper explores the resilience of vulnerable tourism sectors to disasters in a period of global change and... more This paper explores the resilience of vulnerable tourism sectors to disasters in a period of global change and interdependence. It explains why the coral reef tourism industry is highly vulnerable to natural disasters and economic and political shocks. It also explains why enterprise resilience is central to sustainable tourism management, for economic, socio-cultural, and environmental reasons. It extends the concepts of ecological and social resilience to that of enterprise resilience. Using interviews with key enterprise staff the study contrasts the factors associated with the resilience of formal and informal reef tourism enterprises in Phuket, Thailand, following the 2004 tsunami and 2008 political crisis. Informal enterprises reported better financial condition in a shock scenario, and higher levels of social capital in the form of government, family and community support than formal enterprises. Formal and informal enterprises both enjoy high lifestyle benefits from reef tourism, which supports resilience. Most formal enterprises had part foreign ownership/management (61%); no informal enterprise had any foreign ownership or management. Informal enterprises appear more resilient. Management policies supporting reef tourism should consider local nuances, the importance of lifestyle benefits for both formal and informal enterprises and take steps to enable enterprise flexibility and cost-cutting during crises.

Keywords: resilience, coral reefs, tourism, informal sector, enterprises, tsunami, crises, recession, political crisis

Athayde, S. F.; Kaiabi, A.; Ono, K. Y. and Alexiades, M. 2009. Weaving power: displacement and the dynamics of basketry knowledge amongst the Kaiabi in the Brazilian Amazon.

by Simone Athayde

Reference:
2009 Athayde, S. F.; Kaiabi, A.; Ono, K. Y. and Alexiades, M. Weaving power: displacement and the dynamics of basketry knowledge amongst the Kaiabi in the Brazilian Amazon. Chapter of Book. Pages 249-274 in M. Alexiades, ed., Mobility and Migration in Indigenous Amazonia: Contemporary Ethnoecological Perspectives. Berghahn Books, London.

Resilience and Sustainable Development - Policy Brief

by Cai J. Heath

Submitted as part of a Masters Degree in International Development, April 2010.

The Socionatural Connection: Closing Comments (2009)

by Gary Feinman

(J. Brett Hill, Christopher T. Fisher, and Gary M. Feinman, 2009)

Thinking about ecological sustainability

by Sharachchandra (Sharad) Lele

published in SEMINAR, 2006

Florida Atlantic University College of Engineering: Infusing Sustainability in the Curriculum

by John Hardman

The Dangers of Ignoring the Evidence: Hurricanes, Hazards, and Survival (2005)

by Gary Feinman

(Gary M. Feinman and Christopher T. Fisher, 2005)

Introduction: Environmental Studies for Twenty-First-Century Conservation (2009)

by Gary Feinman

(Christopher T. Fisher, J. Brett Hill, and Gary M. Feinman, 2009)