Transcript Perennial STreams Project Update

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Definitions: an introduction
Evaluation Methods Workshop
Sponsored by the
Community Based Collaboratives
Research Consortium
June 6-7, 2004
Evaluation Methods Workshop
Definitions for discussion clarity
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A quick overview of definitions
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Ensure that we understand each other
(before we go too far…)
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Not seeking agreement, just basic
clarity
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Any other words we might add?
Evaluation Methods Workshop
Credit to Resilience Alliance, www.resalliance.org
Community Based Collaborative
The Community-Based Collaboratives Research
Consortium’s working definition of a community-based
collaborative (CBC)):
• A group that has been convened voluntarily from within
the local community to focus on a resource management
issue(s) or planning involving public lands or publicly
owned or regulated resources whose management
impacts the physical, environmental and/or economic
health of the local community;
• A group brought together by a shared desire to influence
the protection and use of natural resources through
recommendations or direct actions that will impact the
management of the resource;
• A group whose membership includes a broad array of
interests, some of which may conflict; and
• A group using a decision-making process that requires
participation by local stakeholders.
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http://www.cbcrc.org, October, 1999
Panarchy
Dynamic interaction of societies and ecosystems
linking theories from ecology, economy and
sociology including:
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A view of cross-scale dynamic interactions
which considers the interplay between change
and persistence, and between the predictable
and unpredictable.
An intent to provide a predictive tool by
examining the properties and processes that
shape the future.
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Gunderson and Holling, 2002
Adaptive Cycle
r: growth or exploitation
K: conservation
Ω: collapse or release
ά: reorganization
A general model of systemic change that proposes that the
internal dynamics of some systems cycle through four phases:
rapid growth, conservation, collapse, and re-organization.
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Gunderson and Holling, 2002
Adaptive Capacity
The ability of a social-ecological system to
cope with novel situations without losing
options for the future.
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Systems with high adaptive capacity are able to
re-configure themselves without significant
declines in crucial functions in relation to
primary productivity, hydrological cycles, social
relations and economic prosperity
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Resilience is key to enhancing adaptive
capacity.
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Resilience
As applied to ecosystems, or to integrated systems
of people and the natural environment, has three
defining characteristics:
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The amount of change the system can
undergo and still retain the same controls on
function and structure,
The degree to which the system is capable of
self-organization, and
The ability to build and increase the capacity
for learning and adaptation.
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Connectedness
The degree of internal control that a
system can exert over external variability.
An organism, ecosystem
or organization or
economic sector with
high connectedness is
little influenced by
external variability.
Can be measured by
the speed of return
to equilibrium after a
disturbance.
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Stonefly: sensitive macro-invertebrate, its
presence and abundance indicate health of
the aquatic system. Highly sensitive to most
disturbances = low connectedness
Aquatic worm: highly tolerant aquatic
organisms, its abundance and lack of other
more sensitive organisms, indicate a
damaged environment. Highly tolerant to
most disturbances so = high connectedness.
Gunderson and Holling, 2002
Complexity
From systems theory, to a more
organic view of systems as dynamic
and learning, characterized by nonstop
flow of information within the ‘system’
and by individual actors making
continual adjustments in their patterns
and behaviors.
Agent based modeling is one method for
modeling complexity (Brogden, 2003).
Study of complex ecological-economic systems entails a
trans-disciplinary approach relating ecological economics to
complex systems (Anderson et al. 1988, Costanza 1991,
Holland 1995, Waldrop 1992) Four basic interactions:
economic agents, institutions, physical economy, ecosystems.
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Other terms to add?
Evaluation Methods Workshop
The End
(for now…)
Evaluation Methods Workshop