Tallgrass Prairie Publications and Reports
Document Type
Article
Keywords
adaptive governance; cross scale dynamics; social ecological system; transformation
Journal/Book/Conference Title Title
Ecology and Society
Volume
22
Issue
1
Abstract
In this article we summarize histories of nonlinear, complex interactions among societal, legal, and ecosystem dynamics in six North American water basins, as they respond to changing climate. These case studies were chosen to explore the conditions for emergence of adaptive governance in heavily regulated and developed social-ecological systems nested within a hierarchical governmental system. We summarize resilience assessments conducted in each system to provide a synthesis and reference by the other articles in this special feature. We also present a general framework used to evaluate the interactions between society and ecosystem regimes and the governance regimes chosen to mediate those interactions. The case studies show different ways that adaptive governance may be triggered, facilitated, or constrained by ecological and/or legal processes. The resilience assessments indicate that complex interactions among the governance and ecosystem components of these systems can produce different trajectories, which include patterns of (a) development and stabilization, (b) cycles of crisis and recovery, which includes lurches in adaptation and learning, and (3) periods of innovation, novelty, and transformation. Exploration of cross scale (Panarchy) interactions among levels and sectors of government and society illustrate that they may constrain development trajectories, but may also provide stability during crisis or innovation at smaller scales; create crises, but may also facilitate recovery; and constrain system transformation, but may also provide windows of opportunity in which transformation, and the resources to accomplish it, may occur. The framework is the starting point for our exploration of how law might play a role in enhancing the capacity of social-ecological systems to adapt to climate change.
Department
Department of Biology
Department
Tallgrass Prairie Center
Original Publication Date
2017
DOI of published version
10.5751/ES-08879-220131
Repository
UNI ScholarWorks, University of Northern Iowa, Rod Library
Copyright
©2017 Lance Gunderson, Barbara A. Cosens, Brian C. Chaffin, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Date Digital
2017
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Gunderson, Lance; Cosens, Barbara A.; Chaffin, Brian C.; Arnold, Craig A. (Tony); Fremier, Alexander K.; Garmestani, Ahjond S.; Craig, Robin Kundis; Gosnell, Hannah; Birge, Hannah E.; Allen, Craig R.; Benson, Melinda H.; Morrison, Ryan R.; Stone, Mark C.; Hamm, Joseph A.; Nemec, Kristine; Schlager, Edella; and Llewellyn, Dagmar, "Regime shifts and panarchies in regional scale social-ecological water systems" (2017). Tallgrass Prairie Publications and Reports. 2.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/tpc_facpub/2
Comments
First published in Ecology and Society, v.22 n.1(2017), by Resilence Alliance. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08879-220131
Erratum: Craig Anthony (Tony) Arnold's name was misspelled when this manuscript was originally published. It was corrected on 15 May 2017.