Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Panarchy'

Liming has been used extensively in Sweden, but the management success has been only partial, mostly mitigating the impact of acidification rather than restoring the ecological communities to a self-maintaining pre-acidified state. Rather than a sound restoration tool, liming is a form of command-and-control management that comprises a significant disturbance in the system, which manifests in the form of profound alterations of biophysical settings of lakes. This thesis aims to assess biological responses to liming with a special focus on resilience by looking at the cross-scale interaction aspects of littoral invertebrate communities in limed lakes within the framework of panarchy theory. The thesis is based on multivariate time series modeling (AEM-RDA) to extract hierarchical temporal fluctuations patterns (temporal scales) in littoral invertebrate communities. This analysis tested for the premise of panarchy theory that complex systems are hierarchically structured. Time series analyses were followed by Spearman rank correlation analysis to test another premise of panarchy theory; namely, that “information” (e.g., management interventions) flows between these hierarchical scales. Specifically, Ca:Mg ratios were used as a surrogate of liming, and correlated with each temporal pattern identified by the AEM-RDA. The result showed the distinct temporal scales in littoral invertebrate communities in limed lakes, fitting the premises of panarchy theory and agreeing with previous studies that found hierarchical temporal organizations in other lake communities. The correlation analyses indicated weak cross-scale manifestation of Ca:Mg ratios in the littoral invertebrate communities, suggesting a weak information flow of liming in managed lakes. This “dilution” of management may provide one mechanism that could explain why liming is not effective in creating a self-organizing, resilient system. The results of this study allow shedding further light on liming as a coerced regime (degraded complex systems forced into a state of desired conditions (e.g., ecosystem service provisioning) through constant management). Most research has so far focused on the evaluation of traditional metrics of biodiversity, which have shown that community structure is substantially altered in limed lakes, deviating from those in circumneutral reference lakes and degraded acidified lakes. This thesis, therefore, concludes that integration of traditional ecological approaches and complexity studies may provide complementary insight into the organization of ecosystems and sustainable resource management.

Ecological change very often parallels social change. The concept of the social-ecological system (SES) provides a holistic means of accounting for the dualistic nature of human-environmental interactions by acknowledging that social, political and economic factors influence and are in turn influenced by the processes of ecological change. These transformations can be contextualized within nested adaptive cycles of change that respond to pre-existing conditions and which provide new opportunities for system actors. The adaptive cycle also grants that processes of social and ecological change may be permanent, irreversible and result in new configurations not previously imaginable. The ability for an SES to respond to these processes of change depends upon its resilience which defines the range of reversible change within a stable state. Resilience is determined by a system's vulnerability, by the pre-existing or available capital.Within this dissertation, I assert that resilience is an important factor to consider in studying arid land political ecology. Resilience can be influenced by both institutional and environmental factors. I assert here that institutional factors alone cannot explain the pace of change in a particular political ecology. While institutions constitute the dominant signals with regards to economic decision making, environmental signals may be ultimately more significant. I utilize a detailed case study focused upon a watershed and ejido in northwestern Mexico. This case study demonstrates the influence of strong political and economic signals that influence local economics. Nature bats last and can exert powerful forces over institutional choices. Using this case study, I demonstrate how a dramatic shift in climatic as well as hydrologic regimes leads ultimately to a general degradation of agropastoral ecological resources and their replacement with new, stable but less desirable states. Land-use has subsequently changed. The latter set of ecological changes has become a sort of death of a thousand cuts that has reduced the community's ability to tap local natural capital and thereby generate economic capital. This study is intends to contribute to our knowledge of political ecology by evaluating the concepts of ecological resilience, multiple stable states, and adaptive cycles to the study of these social-ecological systems.

LA-UR-09-02500A wide range of theories - resilience theory and the study of complex adaptive systems, for example - are advancing our understanding of anthropological systems. Recently, anthropologists have applied the panarchy framework to study socionatural systems. This framework allows researchers to assess growth, conservation, release, and reorganization in this nested-cycle model that operates simultaneously at multiple spatio-temporal scales. The long time-depth of the archaeological record is a critical factor in our ability to investigate human behavior within the panarchy's set of nested adaptive cycles.Archaeological investigation in the US Southwest has focused on processes of aggregation and culture change due to varying environmental and social conditions; the Pajarito Plateau, NM, has been the subject of archaeological research since the late 1800s. The Los Alamos National Laboratory portion of the Plateau has been thoroughly surveyed for cultural resources, but has received less attention by scholars than surrounding areas, including Bandelier National Monument. I use the panarchy framework to build a model of Puebloan settlement, land use, demography, and adaptation to assess the utility of the panarchy model for anthropological systems and fill a void in archaeologists' understanding of the Puebloan Southwest.I analyze patterns of residential and agricultural land use during the Rio Grande Coalition and Classic periods (A.D. 1150-1600) for the Pajarito Plateau. I conclude that there is no major change in the use of various landscape ranges between these periods. I reconstruct regional Puebloan momentary population and investigate recent evidence that supports a San Juan Basin source of the dramatic population increase during the Late Coalition. I also investigate aggregation into large plaza pueblos, the development of craft specialization, agricultural intensification, architectural change, and increased participation in the wider Rio Grande marketplace economy as responses of households, clans, villages, and the entire Pajarito population to the highly fluctuating climate of the local landscape. I address these results within the panarchy framework. Further, I argue that the Pajarito Plateau system continued after the population dispersed into the Rio Grande Valley below, to be closer to reliable sources of water and the growing Rio Grande economy.

The idea of evolutionary resilience in complex systems has gained attention in the recent years. This approach provides better insights in the context of emergence and adaptive capacity, that characterises complex adaptive systems (CAS) such as social-ecological systems (SES), than traditional reductionist and engineering resilience approaches. Departing from this premise, a set of methodologies that are funded in these principles have been developed, with promising perspectives for the analysis of these systems. In this thesis, one of these methodologies, the panarchy, is applied into La Marjaleria case study, in Castelló (Spain), in order to explore its capacity to offer new useful insights for the management of the area throught he scope of resilience. Looking for a systematic methodological approach, the focal SES and their scales are initially defined, followed by an adaptive cycle approach, performed for each of the scales, and finally a panarchy approach that is applied through focusing on the interactions between the adaptive cycles at the different scales. The results are also presented through a new graphic approach that accounts for the representation of the adaptive cycles at the different scales and their interactions in a dynamic manner that includes the time variable, and that can therefore facilitate its understanding. From the analysis performed, the system is found to be stuck in a rigidity trap because of the lack of transformative visions from both scales above (municipality) and below (households). Furthermore, the influence of cascade effects from both the upper and lower scale in the manner through which the focal scale navigated the adaptive cycle has become evident. The panarchy has also helped to discover some existing mismatches and archetypes affecting the system. After all, a general resilience assessment has helped to find out that the system presents a low resilience, and therefore an inherent risk of collapse in the event of external shocks that can make thresholds to be crossed. A further analysis, focused on the specific resilience, has been performed for the risk of flooding. The results show that the engineering resilience approach through which this risk has been traditionally managed could have helped to underestimate flood hazard and therefore contributed to an irresponsible occupation of the floodable area. New approaches towards resilience risk management could help to address the problematics caused by floods and also open new opportunities for long-term sustainability of the system. The panarchy approach can offer useful insights for the assessment of SES from the scope of complexity and multi-scale interactions, providing an approach consistent with the evolutionary resilience characteristic of CAS. However, there still exist some gaps, both in its perception by practitioners and in the availability of solid grounds towards the standardization of its application, implying that there is still room for further improvement in this methodological approach.

Questa ricerca intende contribuire alla discussione sulla riduzione del rischio disastri (DRR), esplorando come le comunità locali dovrebbero adattarsi ai pericoli che le circondano. La prima parte riporta la teoria della panarchia alle dinamiche del rischio. Il modello teorico che ne deriva, la Panarchia Sociale-Ecologica, descrive le condizioni di rischio e permette di riconoscere i nuclei del DRR: la resilienza ai disastri e la sostenibilità ambientale. Il modello fornisce le basi per lo sviluppo di una Valutazione Combinata di Resilienza e Sostenibilità, concentrata sul rischio inondazione alla scala comunale. La seconda parte svolge un’analisi quantitativa attraverso indicatori, che identificano e caratterizzano i livelli di resilienza e sostenibilità. La terza parte impiega strumenti qualitativi (questionari) per raccogliere le percezioni delle comunità locali sui rischi presenti nei loro Comuni. L’analisi è stata applicata a due casi studio, la Regione Marche (Italia) e l’Hokkaidō (Giappone). I risultati mostrano il ruolo delle inondazioni nel determinare la resilienza locale, e degli impatti antropici per la sostenibilità. Le criticità maggiori sono concentrate nelle aree montane/collinari. Allo stesso tempo, aspetti di welfare e sicurezza sociale risultano fondamentali per formare la resilienza, così come la presenza di vegetazione lo è per la sostenibilità. Inoltre, emerge una sostanziale differenza fra misurazione e percezione di resilienza e sostenibilità, generalmente in senso peggiorativo. In generale, ulteriori sforzi dovrebbero essere diretti alle aree interne, benché la regione intera gioverebbe del consolidamento della resilienza locale. Inoltre, le comunità sembrano molto sensibili ai temi ambientali, per cui potrebbero appoggiare sforzi per aumentare la sostenibilità. Infine, questi studi possono contribuire alle strategie DRR, per promuovere l’adattamento trasformativo delle comunità locali, reso urgente dall’esasperazione degli eventi estremi.
This research intends to contribute to the discussion on disaster risk reduction (DRR), investigating the question of how local communities should adjust to the surrounding threats. The first part adapted the panarchy heuristics to risk dynamics. The drawn theoretical model, the Social-Ecological Panarchy, could describe the conditions of risk and allow to recognise the two cores of DRR: disaster resilience and environmental sustainability. The model supported the development of a Combined Assessment of Resilience and Sustainability, focused on flood risk at the Municipal scale. The second part of the research performed a quantitative analysis through numerical indicators, that identified and characterised the levels of resilience and sustainability. The third part of the research employed qualitative tools (questionnaires) to gather the thoughts of local communities on the risks affecting their Municipalities. The analysis was applied to two case studies, Marche Region (Italy) and Hokkaidō (Japan). Results evidenced the role of flood events in determining the resilience capacities of local communities, and of the anthropic impacts for defining their sustainability. Most critical issues lied in the mountainous/hill areas. At the same time, social welfare and protection appeared pivotal in building local resilience, while the presence of vegetation shaped sustainability. Besides, a substantial mismatch emerged between assessed and perceived conditions of resilience and sustainability, generally in negative terms. Overall, it appeared that further efforts should be tailored to the innermost areas, though the overall region might benefit from consolidated resilience. At the same time, local populations seemed highly responsive to environmental issues, possibly endorsing the enhancement of sustainability. Eventually, these insights might inform risk reduction strategies, to foster a transformative adaptation of local communities, urged by exacerbating disruptive threats.

A questão a ser abordada na tese se encontra sob o tema do planejamento urbano, enfatizando a dissonância entre os avanços dos estudos acerca da Ciência das Cidades e a prática de planejamento usual, cujo caráter é extremamente normativo e prescritivo. Destarte, por um lado, se revisa o planejamento urbano - seu desenvolvimento, bases teóricas, processos e ferramentas; aproximando-se da realidade brasileira; e, por outro lado, se revisa o estado da arte da Ciência das Cidades, evidenciando-se como o entendimento acerca deste fenômeno se desenvolveu. Portanto, com o objetivo de discutir as possibilidades e delinear as prováveis e desejáveis características de uma estrutura de planejamento que possa responder de modo mais acurado à dinâmica intraurbana, foi sugerida uma macroestrutura baseada em uma Panarquia. A microestrutura envolve um processo que inicia a partir da demanda pontual de um agente, cujos impactos são percebidos nos outros níveis da estrutura urbana, determinando âmbitos de agentes envolvidos. Na sequência, se estabelecem processos classificatórios, informativos, avaliativos, decisórios e de retroalimentação. Por fim, sugere-se que seja estabelecida uma substituição gradual das regras normativas apriorísticas por critérios mais amplos e regras locais de interação.
The question to be addressed in the thesis is under the theme of urban planning, emphasizing the dissonance between the advances of studies on the science of cities and the usual planning practice, whose character is extremely normative and prescriptive. Thus, on the one hand, it reviews urban planning – its development, theoretical foundations, processes and tools; approaching the Brazilian reality; and, on the other hand, it reviews the state of the art of the science of cities, demonstrating how the understanding of this phenomenon has been developed. Therefore, in order to discuss the possibilities and outline the probable and desirable characteristics of an alternative planning framework that can respond more accurately to the intra-urban dynamics, it is suggested a panarchy based macrostructure. The microstructure involves a process that starts with a punctual demand of an agent, whose impacts are perceived in other levels of the urban structure, determining levels of stakeholders. Following are established classification, information, evaluation, decision-making and feedback processes. Finally, it is suggested a gradual replacement of normative rules by broader criteria and local interaction rules.

Research was undertaken for this thesis to uncover characteristics of resilient volunteers and stewardship groups, both of which are a major element of the social mobilisation strategy used in Australia to manage natural resources. The ability of volunteers and groups to overcome problems, deal with new issues as they arise, and keep going under pressure is termed 'resilience'. A 'resilience management' approach to natural resource management uses the idea of 'adaptive change' or panarchy to understand the development of resilience and thus, sustainability in human communities. According to this theory, sustainable communities are both changeable and stable, adapting to new situations as they arise. The research approach used in the study is called 'phenomenography'. It is an interpretive approach, based on the central assumption that there is variation in the ways in which people experience the same phenomenon. Phenomenography was used to see if lessons about resilience and sustainability could be learnt from catchment volunteers. All participants were 'catchment volunteers' working along the east coast of Queensland. They were drawn from a variety of organisations and programs including Landcare; Coastcare; Bushcare; Greening Australia; Waterwatch; treeplanting groups; and Integrated Catchment Management Committees. A total of 26 personal and group interviews involving 85 participants were conducted. Interviews comprised a series of semi-structured questions that were tape-recorded, then transcribed verbatim. Through a process of comparing and contrasting themes in the transcriptions, six conceptions emerged. These were: catchment volunteering was experienced as seeking and maintaining balance; developing/maintaining an identity; empowerment; learning; networking; and sustainable. Analysis of these themes was used to develop a model of catchment volunteer experiences depicting relationships between conceptions (termed the 'Outcome Space' in phenomenography). In this study the Outcome Space emerged as a set of scales, signifying the importance of keeping a balanced perspective on volunteering - a balance between things such as personal goals and organisational goals; between dedication to an unpaid vocation and family life; and between social benefits and environmental benefits. From the Outcome Space, several conceptual and practical outcomes were developed. These included: a typology of participation based on volunteer experiences; a table describing forms of empowerment in catchment volunteering; a table listing drivers for catchment volunteers; an illustration of Holling and Gunderson's adaptive cycle as it applies to stewardship groups; a table of factors that enhance the resilience and sustainability of stewardship groups; a model of the relationship between external pressures and resilient, sustainable stewardship groups; and guidelines for developing resilient sustainable stewardship groups. These outcomes contribute to an understanding of individual, group and community level responses to environmental issues; and how resilience can be developed in volunteers and stewardship groups and programs.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Australian School of Environmental Studies
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Con el objetivo de identificar factores y características que faciliten y promuevan la resiliencia social-ecológica en las ciudades, esta tesis doctoral sitúa, analiza, estructura, e interpreta las prácticas urbanísticas de las ciudades frente a los cambios, crisis, y colapsos internos y externos, utilizando como metodología de análisis la heurística de las dinámicas evolutivas de los Sistemas Social-Ecológicos (SSE). Esta metodología, basada en el ciclo adaptativo y en la panarquía de Holling y Gunderson (2002), permite aplicar una visión no lineal, con cambio imprevisibles, y multi-escalar ante la vulnerabilidad de los SSE frente a la visión lineal, institucionalizada y prospectiva de la disciplina del planeamiento urbanístico, condenado a resolver los problemas del pasado (Davoudi, 2012). El análisis se centra en la ciudad de Barcelona desde la aprobación del Plan Comarcal de 1953 hasta 2016, con un enfoque específico en el barrio de Vallcarca del Distrito de Gracia. Tras la introducción en el capítulo I, se presenta la base teórica del ciclo adaptativo y de los SSE adaptativos en el capítulo II, y en el capítulo III se describen y se comparan las distintas etapas y ciclos de las prácticas urbanísticas de Barcelona desde la óptica de la ciencia del urbanismo. En el capítulo IV, utilizando el ejemplo de Barcelona, se defiende que las dinámicas evolutivas de las ciudades son asimilables a las de la naturaleza al cumplir, las primeras, las características de los sistemas adaptativos: la no-linealidad, la imprevisibilidad, y la existencia de cambios y crisis que precisan de adaptación para ser sostenibles. Se muestra cómo el ciclo adaptativo permite analizar las dinámicas evolutivas de los SSE. Dicha herramienta también puede ser utilizada para analizar la evolución de las ciudades, al ser estas asimilables a las evoluciones de la naturaleza. Se procede a aplicar dicho método de análisis utilizando, en paralelo diversas metodologías de recogida de datos, incluyendo la observación participante y entrevistas semi-estructuradas, entre otras. En concreto, en el capítulo IV, se analiza, utilizando el instrumento del ciclo adaptativo, las prácticas urbanísticas a escala de la ciudad y se comparan con los ciclos de la ciencia del urbanismo. En el capítulo V se presenta el caso específico del barrio de Vallcarca y sus perspectivas, y en el capítulo VI se introduce el concepto de Panarquía relacionando las dinámicas de Barcelona con el barrio. En el capítulo VII se concluye con los resultados principales del estudio. En resumen, se verá en esta tesis doctoral, cómo frente al análisis lineal y prospectivo de la ciencia del urbanismo, el instrumento de los ciclos adaptativos y de la panarquía de los SSE de la ciencia de la ecología, aplicado a la gestión del sistema urbano, permite: - Subrayar que existe una lógica del ciclo (adaptativo) y de la propia recurrencia de los ciclos (con su estructura de fases) en el sistema urbano y sus prácticas urbanísticas, y - Diferenciar entre dos modelos complementarios y no maximizables simultáneamente: el prospectivo de crecimiento y estabilización (front-loop) y el retrospectivo de innovación y aprendizaje (back-loop), situando así, con mejor precisión, los fenómenos de innovación urbana y social, y estableciendo, con mayor detalle, los umbrales del cambio en el sistema urbano. A su vez, se aplica la teoría de los sistemas complejos adaptativos evaluando el fenómeno de la panarquía de los sistemas urbanos del punto vista espacial, social y medioambiental, lo que permite poner en valor los procesos de memoria (estabilización) y, sobretodo, de revuelta (innovación) que surgen desde abajo. Estas prácticas urbanísticas retrospectivas y recurrentes contienen atributos de resiliencia, como son la diversidad, la auto-organización, la adaptabilidad, y el aprendizaje; frente a los atributos de eficiencia, corporativismo e institucionalización de las prácticas prospectivas.
Cities (social-ecological systems) evolve as an adaptive self-organized complex system. As a consequence, sustainable development of urban systems are based on their degree of adaptability and transformability to systemic change. This capacity to adapt is called resilience. The adaptive cycle and the panarchy heuristic (Gunderson and Holling, 2002) is a representation of resilience dynamics by inner-scales and cross-scales networks, nested in a set of adaptive cycles experienced by permanent changes caused by hierarchical relationships at both time and space scale and through the “revolt” and “memory” connections in order to establish a sustainable development. The main goal of this doctoral thesis is to apply the Adaptive cycle and the Panarchy heuristic as an Urban Planning management tool and methodology to analyze, structure and interpret urban dynamics from 1953 to 2016. Two case studies are presented: The city of Barcelona and the neighborhood of VallcarcA

Research was undertaken for this thesis to uncover characteristics of resilient volunteers and stewardship groups, both of which are a major element of the social mobilisation strategy used in Australia to manage natural resources. The ability of volunteers and groups to overcome problems, deal with new issues as they arise, and keep going under pressure is termed 'resilience'. A 'resilience management' approach to natural resource management uses the idea of 'adaptive change' or panarchy to understand the development of resilience and thus, sustainability in human communities. According to this theory, sustainable communities are both changeable and stable, adapting to new situations as they arise. The research approach used in the study is called 'phenomenography'. It is an interpretive approach, based on the central assumption that there is variation in the ways in which people experience the same phenomenon. Phenomenography was used to see if lessons about resilience and sustainability could be learnt from catchment volunteers. All participants were 'catchment volunteers' working along the east coast of Queensland. They were drawn from a variety of organisations and programs including Landcare; Coastcare; Bushcare; Greening Australia; Waterwatch; treeplanting groups; and Integrated Catchment Management Committees. A total of 26 personal and group interviews involving 85 participants were conducted. Interviews comprised a series of semi-structured questions that were tape-recorded, then transcribed verbatim. Through a process of comparing and contrasting themes in the transcriptions, six conceptions emerged. These were: catchment volunteering was experienced as seeking and maintaining balance; developing/maintaining an identity; empowerment; learning; networking; and sustainable. Analysis of these themes was used to develop a model of catchment volunteer experiences depicting relationships between conceptions (termed the 'Outcome Space' in phenomenography). In this study the Outcome Space emerged as a set of scales, signifying the importance of keeping a balanced perspective on volunteering - a balance between things such as personal goals and organisational goals; between dedication to an unpaid vocation and family life; and between social benefits and environmental benefits. From the Outcome Space, several conceptual and practical outcomes were developed. These included: a typology of participation based on volunteer experiences; a table describing forms of empowerment in catchment volunteering; a table listing drivers for catchment volunteers; an illustration of Holling and Gunderson's adaptive cycle as it applies to stewardship groups; a table of factors that enhance the resilience and sustainability of stewardship groups; a model of the relationship between external pressures and resilient, sustainable stewardship groups; and guidelines for developing resilient sustainable stewardship groups. These outcomes contribute to an understanding of individual, group and community level responses to environmental issues; and how resilience can be developed in volunteers and stewardship groups and programs.

Due to the increasing impacts of environmental and anthropogenic drivers, coastal Social-Ecological Systems (SESs) are deteriorating. Scholars argue that the conventional environmental governance and management approaches have not been successful in reversing or slowing down this deterioration. Despite calls for more collaborative and democratic approaches, governance is often hierarchical, inflexible and fails to consider social factors in decision-making processes appropriately. Research suggests that resilience thinking could provide a powerful framework for analysing problems in SESs and guiding the design of reform options. This research aimed to examine the utility of a resilience thinking framework to analyse and improve environmental governance, using Tasmanian coastal areas as a case study. The objectives of the analysis were to: (i) establish requirements for effective coastal governance, as informed by resilience thinking and governance theory; (ii) identify influential organisations, taking into account interactions across scales; (iii) identify the attributes of resilience capacity (both adaptational and transformational); (iv) evaluate Tasmanian coastal governance against these attributes and identify potentially useful reform options; (v) reflect on the power and the utility of resilience thinking for informing the design of effective and responsive coastal governance; and (vi) draw out implications for the design of resilience coastal governance regimes beyond the case study area. This thesis adopted a mixed method approach involving literature review, case study, an online survey and semi-structured interviews with key case study stakeholders. Triangulation of evidence from these multiple sources generated robust findings in relation to each of the objectives. Resilience thinking (and the embedded SES concept) was identified as a potentially suitable framework to address the complexity of coastal SES under conditions of uncertainty. In addition, governance was recognised as providing an essential means of identifying and negotiating diverse values and interests, including ecological, social, economic and political considerations. Sixteen key attributes that constitute resilience capacity were identified from an analysis of the literature. These attributes encompassed the fundamental features of resilience thinking and good governance including panarchy, adaptive cycle, stakeholder engagement, flexibility, polycentricity and leadership. From the online survey, stakeholders considered all sixteen attributes to be important in developing resilience-based governance for the case study area. However, survey and interviews identified a low level of resilience capacity across the entire governance system. At the national level, only knowledge management processes, diversity of expertise and knowledge sharing mechanisms were contributing to resilience capacity, with the rest of the attributes insufficiently developed to support any level of resilience. The performance was similarly poor at the Tasmanian State level, with leadership, adaptive planning, institutional flexibility and a supportive legislation framework at critically low capacity. Inter-organisational attributes such as organisational coordination also required significant improvement. In contrast, a regional natural resource management body and two coastal local governments were supporting an adequate resilience capacity, particularly with respect to leadership, transparent decision-making, stakeholder engagement, organisational learning, knowledge sharing mechanisms and flexibility. Barriers to establishing resilience-based Tasmanian coastal governance included lack of supportive political leadership, poorly developed and fragmented policy and planning frameworks, and inadequate inter-sectoral and cross-scale communication and collaboration. Reform options were proposed to improve resilience-based Tasmanian coastal governance, structured under interrelated themes including panarchy and adaptive cycle; leadership; knowledge systems and adaptive learning; and public awareness and engagement. The findings confirmed the power and utility of resilience thinking and the sixteen attributes of resilience capacity as an overarching framework for analysing complex coastal SESs. A comparison between the Tasmanian coastal SES and issues facing coastal areas in the US and Europe showed that it is likely that many of the reform options proposed in this research could address governance problems in other developed country contexts.

Today, Canada’s population is over 80 percent urban as exemplified by our growing cities. As a result of outmigration to urban centres, many rural economies in Atlantic Canada are struggling socially and economically. This research examines the redevelopment of rural communities through a lens of continuous cycles of adaptive change - based on Holling’s ecological concept of panarchy. By drawing on the characteristics of ecological communities, this panarchy-based theoretical framework uses a novel approach to reflect on a community’s position along its own adaptive change cycle and identifies leverage points where policy intervention may be most advantageous. This research also examines the practical application of this framework via interviews with economic development officials. Overall, the results of this research suggest that the panarchy-based framework offers constructive guidance to policy makers seeking to push or pull rural communities into positions of higher resiliency and to expedite times of economic uncertainty.

abstract: Research indicates that projected increases in global urban populations are not adequately addressed by current food production and planning. In the U.S., insufficient access to food, or the inability to access enough food for an active, healthy life affects nearly 15% of the population. In the face of these challenges, how are urban planners and other food system professionals planning for more resilient food systems? The purpose of this qualitative case study is to understand the planning and policy resources and food system approaches that might have the ability to strengthen food systems, and ultimately, urban resiliency. It proposes that by understanding food system planning in this context, planning approaches can be developed to strengthen urban food systems. The study uses the conceptual framework of urban planning for food, new community food systems, urban resiliency, and the theory of Panarchy as a model for urban planning and creation of new community food systems. Panarchy theory proposes that entrenched, non-diverse systems can change and adapt, and this study proposes that some U.S. cities are doing just that by planning for new community food systems. It studied 16 U.S. cities considered to be leaders in sustainability practices, and conducted semi-structured interviews with professionals in three of those cities: Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; and Seattle, WA. The study found that these cities are using innovative methods in food system work, with professionals from many different departments and disciplines bringing interdisciplinary approaches to food planning and policy. Supported by strong executive leadership, these cities are creating progressive urban agriculture zoning policies and other food system initiatives, and using innovative educational programs and events to engage citizens at all socio-economic levels. Food system departments are relatively new, plans and policies among the cities are not consistent, and they are faced with limited resources to adequately track food system-related data. However they are still moving forward with programming to increase food access and improve their food systems. Food-system resiliency is recognized as an important goal, but cities are in varying stages of development for resiliency planning.
Dissertation/Thesis
Ph.D. Environmental Design and Planning 2014

I analyse the emergence of a co-management system for protected area governance at Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site on the northwest coast of Canada. Of primary concern is the analysis of the co-management structure for properties that are essential for maintaining a sustainable trajectory and an exploration of the key mechanisms for its development. The underlying framework for the analysis in this thesis is panarchy which is based on four categories of factors for building resilience: 1) learning to live with change and uncertainty; 2) nurturing diversity for re-organization and renewal; 3) combining different kinds of knowledge; and 4) creating opportunity for self-organization. This framework emerges from the conclusions of a multi-year team study of the dynamics of socio-ecological systems and how to enhance the resilience of these complex systems to tackle complexity, uncertainty and global environmental change. As the Archipelago Management Board (AMB) is the institutional structure that is managing the future of Gwaii Haanas, therefore, I focus on how this structure facilitates resilience. 1 argue that it should be an arena for flexible collaboration with multi-level governance that facilitates adaptive management (learning and building ecological knowledge into the institutional structure) and nurturing elements of resilience (cultural and ecological memory). The Lyell Island blockade in 1986, was a collective action against a crisis (cultural and environmental degradation caused by industrial logging) where key stewards and several Haida elders provided leadership, vision and trust. Parks Canada helped end the conflict by offering a management approach that accommodates Haida rights to their traditional lands, the formation of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site. Here I argue that the power-sharing structure of the AMB provides political space for experimentation. As such, the AMB appears to be an adaptive co-management system that is flexible, community-based, tailored to specific situations and supported by and working in collaboration with a concerned government agency to ensure sustainable resource management. So far, this arrangement has been able to successfully move away from a less desired trajectory toward a more sustainable one with the capacity to nurture the ecological health of Gwaii Haanas and the Haida culture on which it depends. I discuss the key role of co-management in re-coupling society to ecological feedback, creating political space for experimentation, accommodating varied ways of knowing and learning, including traditional ecological knowledge to link management with ecological understanding, and extending management into the social domain. I conclude that management in the implementation of protected area policy in Canadian National Parks could benefit from a more explicit collaboration with local communities who have special interests and site-specific ecological knowledge to better understand and monitor complex systems for long-term sustainability of protected areas.

This research considers a person’s ontological fabric woven from experiences of and in (trans)formative childhood and adolescent places through three conceptual frameworks: complexity theory, endogeny, and i/Indigenous ways of knowing. By re-visiting the (trans)formative places of four exemplary citizens with them, creating an interactive website and iBook, and exploring ten online public participants’ posts, I gained an understanding of how childhood and adolescent outdoor places act as catalysts of community, ecological, and civic environmental engagement. To achieve this, I asked the question: Does learning that occurs in childhood and adolescent outdoor places inform civic, emotional, physical, and/or spiritual engagement or connectedness over the course of people’s lives? If so, how? Tsartlip (Coast Salish First Nations) Elder, May Sam, Hua Foundation co-founder Claudia Li, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Wade Davis, and former Lieutenant Governor of BC, Iona Campagnolo, all exemplary individuals, shared personal relationships with their childhood and adolescent places. They engaged though participatory action research by taking me to these places, contributing to the interview process, and supporting the analysis of the results. As a way to engage decolonizing methodologies and encourage authentic voice within this research, I took great care in using interview and discourse techniques that were respectful, engaging, and empowering. Each of these visits were filmed and appropriate sections were shared through online social media as a way to invite participation from the larger North American public (www.transformativeplaces.com). Ten more participants’ experiences were analyzed based on their submissions to this website. Data were explored through a hybrid of phenomenological and participatory analysis and participants were invited to help discern meaning through post-filming interviews and dialogue. The concept (trans)formative places was defined as sites that engage humans in biophysical, emotional, spiritual, and civic engagement. Major notions included the development of a memetic group of concepts that help describe the processes, characteristics, and relationships that occur from, in, and with (trans)formative places. I found that my participants’ relationship to places were formed through family and community bonds, where learning occurs through shared stories, collective healing, and respect-building. Places transformed my participants through identity development, memory and anxiety, resiliency behaviour, nostalgia, and loss. Finally, my participants related to places through connective processes like knowing a place and being home, engendering bliss and appreciation, development of pride and hope and emotionality. The final section of this dissertation is articulated as a manifesto for creating, sustaining, and engaging in (trans)formative places. To download the interactive iBook of this dissertation search for it in iTunes.
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This study develops an interdisciplinary theoretical framework for understanding institutional change and resistance to change towards sustainability. The research rests on two leading theories of change within the social and ecological sciences: the New Institutionalism and Panarchy theory. A theoretical framework integrating insights from the two theories is applied in an analysis of the development of the Town of Caledon’s mineral resources policies. The research suggests that institutional change and inertia are interconnected and interdependent and, depending on the case and context, they may interact with each other across spatial and temporal scales. There may be overlap in the emergence of pressures for institutional inertia and change across temporal and spatial scales, and both institutional change and inertia may be present when opportunities arise for renegotiation of the “rules of the game”. Results show that the two theories share many concepts (e.g., thresholds or tipping points, fast and slow moving variables, etc.) to aid in understanding the dynamics of institutional and ecological realms. Moreover, the integrated theoretical framework can help to explain the dynamics of institutional systems in a way that overcomes the limitations in Panarchy and the New Institutionalism theories by themselves. Key concepts within Panarchy theory (e.g., regime shifts, etc.) complement the New Institutionalism’s ability to capture important contextual factors influencing institutional change and inertia, and help to overcome the current limitation in its capacity to explain the nonlinear, multi-scalar dynamics of institutional systems. In turn, key concepts within the New Institutionalism (e.g., uncertainty, etc.) complement and enrich Panarchy theory’s capacity to illustrate the social and economic dimensions of institutional dynamics. Results of the case analysis demonstrate that a range of overlapping, historic and immediate, local-to-provincial factors (e.g., socioeconomic costs, uncertainty, path dependent effects, etc.) and institutional elements (e.g., interests and values, power and resources, issues of fit, etc.) drove institutional change and inertia in the development of Caledon’s mineral resources policies. The slow moving institutional variables in Caledon’s case (core Town, industry and provincial government values and interests) were perhaps the greatest determinants of institutional change and resistance to change towards sustainability. The story of the development of Caledon’s mineral resources policies, then, is about the resilience and resistance efforts of a small Town committed to maintaining core community values under the constraints of a resilient and resistant, ecologically destructive and inequitable institutional system.

There is mounting evidence that sustainable scale thresholds are now being exceeded worldwide and environmental resource shocks (e.g. climate change, water and oil shortages) may be inevitable in some regions of the world in the near future. These could result in severe economic breakdowns, welfare loss, and in the worst-case, the collapse of modern civilization. Therefore, a pre-eminent challenge of our times is to determine how to design a resilient (safe-fail) economy – one that can endure, adapt to and successfully recover from breakdowns when they occur. Surprisingly, while ecological economic theory relies heavily on natural science concepts such as thermodynamics, insufficient attention has been paid to the important ecological concept of resilience, particularly as it applies to economic design. The three major policy goals of current ecological economic theory (sustainable scale, just distribution and efficient allocation) focus instead on preventing environmental resource shocks and breakdowns, but given their unpredictability prevention may not always be possible. How resilience can inform the blossoming field of ecological economics is thus explored in this theoretical, transdisciplinary paper. Drawing on literature as diverse as archaeology and disaster planning, it develops six key principles of economic resilience and applies them to analyze the resilience of key societal systems including our money, electricity, water, transportation, information/communication and emergency response systems. Overall, economic resilience appears to be a unique concern that is not readily subsumed under any of the three existing ecological economic policy pillars. In fact, efforts to build in resilience have the potential to both complement and at times contradict the other three goals, especially efficiency. The need to further study these possible tradeoffs provides strong justification for adding a fourth distinct policy pillar, namely “Resilient Design”, to core ecological economic theory. Indeed, ecological economist’s longstanding criticism of economic growth meshes readily with the Resilience Alliance’s own figure-8 adaptive cycle theory critiquing the resilience costs of growth, providing significant opportunities for the future collaboration of these two fields in broadening global system theory.

This study examines how leaders enable their organisations to adapt and succeed in complex environments. Through the joint lenses of complexity theory and the cognition and social neuroscience of leadership it focuses on how leadership directly influences the creation and ongoing function of an adaptive organisation. The study includes the comparison of four leaders through embedded case studies as an abductive approach to initial theory building, and the follow up of two of them as a comparative method of analysis, and it generates a substantive theory of leadership cognition called emergent logic. This leadership approach is especially relevant to leading complex human systems in emergent environments, the scenario for the majority of organisations in the present day. This thesis addresses two questions: How do leaders of adaptive organisations think? And what do leaders of adaptive organisations do? Among the major findings the study reveals that a critical success factor is the leader’s capacity to create and guide a complex human system by establishing and maintaining a shared mental model of its collective purpose, guided by deeply held and articulated values. The cognitive constructs of complexity and emergent logic have a direct and indirect effect on individuals and the organisation, and facilitate the creation of an adaptive operational culture and organisational mind, and the complementary enabling structures that allow for ongoing evolution through emergence, transformation and diffusion as required. Thus the organisation and its people can progressively build more complex emergent mental models and solutions in the face of increasingly common unpredictable situations, leading to the capability for organisational adaption and evolution over time. In contributing to the theory of creating and leading adaptive organisations, supported by empirical research, this study has improved our understanding of the effect of the leader’s cognitive capacity on organisational adaptability and the level of entanglement; revealed the links between the creation of adaptive organisational structures and their culture; examined the growth of individual and collective capability to manage the increasing complexity and emergence created by successful adaption and evolution; identified the common elements of various types of complex systems that are relevant to adaptive change; presented a model of emergent logic and described the empirical use of that model over time.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Business School, 2014