The Implications of Complexity for Integrated Resources Management

Integrated environmental resources management is a purposeful activity with the goal to maintain and improve the state of an environmental resource affected by human activities. In many cases different goals are in conflict and the notion ''integrated'' clearly indicates that resources management should be approached from a broad perspective taking all potential trade-offs and different scales in space and time into account. However, we are yet far from putting into practice integrated resources management fully taking into account the complexity of human-technology-environment systems. The tradition of resources management and of dealing with environmental problems is characterized by a command and control approach. The increasing awareness for the complexity of environmental problems and of human-technology-environment systems has triggered the development of new management approaches. The paper discusses the importance of focusing on the transition to new management paradigms based on the insight that the systems to be managed are complex adaptive systems. It provides arguments for the role of social learning processes and the need to develop methods combining approaches from hard and soft systems analysis. Soft systems analysis focuses on the importance of subjective perceptions and socially constructed reality. Soft systems methods and group model building techniques are quite common in management science where the prime target of management has always been the social system. Resources management is still quite slow to take up such innovations that should follow as a logical consequence of adopting an integrated management approach. Integrated water resources management is used as example to provide evidence for the need to implement participatory and adaptive management approaches that are able to cope with increasing uncertainties arising from fast changing socio-economic conditions and global and climate change. Promising developments and future research directions are discussed. The paper concludes with pointing out the need for changes in the scientific community to improve the conditions for interdisciplinary, system-oriented and trans-disciplinary research.

[1]  J Swanson,et al.  Business Dynamics—Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World , 2002, J. Oper. Res. Soc..

[2]  Lutz E. Schlange Scenarios: The art of strategic conversation , 1997 .

[3]  David N. Ford,et al.  Mental models concepts for system dynamics research , 1998 .

[4]  Michael W. Mehaffy,et al.  At Home In The Universe The Search For The Laws Of Self Organization And Complexity , 1996 .

[5]  David N. Ford,et al.  Mental models concepts revisited: some clarifications and a reply to Lane , 1999 .

[6]  A. P. de Geus Modelling to predict or to learn , 1992 .

[7]  Tove A. Larsen,et al.  Modeling the actors in water supply systems , 1999 .

[8]  M. Hare,et al.  Stakeholder Categorisation in Participatory Integrated Assessment Processes , 2002 .

[9]  Jonathan S. Evans,et al.  Bias in human reasoning , 1990 .

[10]  A. Bandura Social learning theory , 1977 .

[11]  John D. Sterman,et al.  Business dynamics : systems thinking and modelling for acomplex world , 2002 .

[12]  Hanna J. Cortner,et al.  Forest-user attitudes toward alternative fire management policies , 1985 .

[13]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity , 1998 .

[14]  L. H. Immers,et al.  Gaming Approach Route 26: a combination of computer simulation, design tools and social interaction , 2002, J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul..

[15]  Susanna Nilsson,et al.  The role and use of information in transboundary water management , 2003 .

[16]  J. Sterman Business Dynamics , 2000 .

[17]  Brian Richter,et al.  ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT: MANAGING RIVER FLOWS FOR ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY , 2003 .

[18]  Robert Fildes Scenarios: The Art of Strategic Conversation , 1998, J. Oper. Res. Soc..

[19]  Jon Norberg,et al.  Resilience Management in Social-ecological Systems: a Working Hypothesis for a Participatory Approach , 2002 .

[20]  Etiënne A. J. A. Rouwette,et al.  Group Model Building , 2009, Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science.

[21]  M. Douglas,et al.  Risk and Culture , 1983 .

[22]  A. Specht,et al.  Assisting stakeholder decision making using system dynamics group model-building , 2003 .

[23]  C Pahl-Wostl,et al.  Interaction analysis of stakeholders in water supply systems. , 2001, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[24]  C Pahl-Wostl,et al.  Integrated management of natural resources: dealing with ambiguous issues, multiple actors and diverging frames. , 2005, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[25]  Garry D. Peterson,et al.  Complex Adaptive Systems: Use and Analysis of Complex Adaptive Systems in Ecosystem Science: Overview of Special Section , 1998, Ecosystems.

[26]  Jac A. M. Vennix,et al.  Group model-building: tackling messy problems , 1999 .

[27]  Claudia Pahl-Wostl,et al.  The Dynamic Nature of Ecosystems: Chaos and Order Entwined , 1995 .

[28]  Claudia Pahl-Wostl,et al.  Integrated management of natural resources: Uncertainty, ambiguity and the role of framing and reframing , 2004 .

[29]  M. Craps Social Learning in River Basin Management , 2003 .

[30]  Andrew N. Gray,et al.  Adaptive Ecosystem Management in the Pacific Northwest: a Case Study from Coastal Oregon , 2000 .

[31]  J. Mcphee The Control of Nature , 1989 .

[32]  Carl J. Walters,et al.  Adaptive Management of Renewable Resources , 1986 .

[33]  C. Pahl-Wostl,et al.  Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/casp.774 Processes of Social Learning in Integrated Resources Management , 2022 .

[34]  Claudia Pahl-Wostl,et al.  Transitions towards adaptive management of water facing climate and global change , 2006 .

[35]  C. Folke,et al.  Navigating social–ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change: Fikret Berkes, Johan Colding and Carl Folke (Eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2003. xxi + 393 pages. ISBN 0-521-81592-4 (hardback), £65 , 2004 .

[36]  Donald Ludwig,et al.  Uncertainty, Resource Exploitation, and Conservation: Lessons from History. , 1993, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[37]  François Bousquet,et al.  Role-playing games for opening the black box of multi-agent systems: method and lessons of its application to Senegal River Valley irrigated systems , 2001, J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul..

[38]  S. Funtowicz,et al.  Science for the PostNormal Age , 2001 .

[39]  Claudia Pahl-Wostl,et al.  Participative and Stakeholder-Based Policy Design, Evaluation and Modeling Processes , 2002 .

[40]  Kai N. Lee Appraising Adaptive Management , 2000 .

[41]  S. Levin Ecosystems and the Biosphere as Complex Adaptive Systems , 1998, Ecosystems.

[42]  David C. Lane,et al.  Modelling as learning: A consultancy methodology for enhancing learning in management teams , 1992 .

[43]  S. Kauffman At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity , 1995 .

[44]  Gene F. Franklin,et al.  Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems , 1986 .

[45]  Claudia Pahl-Wostl,et al.  Self‐Regulation of Limnetic Ecosystems , 2007 .

[46]  Ray Ison,et al.  Systems methodologies for sustainable natural resources research and development. , 1997 .

[47]  Chris Hope,et al.  Environmental information for all : The need of a monthly index , 1990 .

[48]  Claudia Pahl-Wostl,et al.  Towards sustainability in the water sector – The importance of human actors and processes of social learning , 2002, Aquatic Sciences.

[49]  P. Senge THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE , 1997 .

[50]  Claire Waterton,et al.  Imagine complexity : The past, present and future potential of complex thinking. , 1996 .

[51]  Frank L. Lewis,et al.  Applied Optimal Control and Estimation , 1992 .

[52]  C. S. Holling Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management , 2005 .