Resilience Thinking

by Walker, Brian; Salt, David; Reid, Walter V.

• ISBN13: 9781597260930
• ISBN10: 1597260932
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-22
• Publisher: Island Pr

Summary

Increasingly, cracks are appearing in the capacity of communities, ecosystems, and landscapes to provide the goods and services that sustain our planet's well-being. The response from most quarters has been for "more of the same" that created the situation in the first place: more control, more intensification, and greater efficiency. "Resilience thinking" offers a different way of understanding the world and a new approach to managing resources. It embraces human and natural systems as complex entities continually adapting through cycles of change, and seeks to understand the qualities of a system that must be maintained or enhanced in order to achieve sustainability. It explains why greater efficiency by itself cannot solve resource problems and offers a constructive alternative that opens up options rather than closing them down. In Resilience Thinking, scientist Brian Walker and science writer David Salt present an accessible introduction to the emerging paradigm of resilience. The book arose out of appeals from colleagues in science and industry for a plainly written account of what resilience is all about and how a resilience approach differs from current practices. Rather than complicated theory, the book offers a conceptual overview along with five case studies of resilience thinking in the real world. It is an engaging and important work for anyone interested in managing risk in a complex world.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
1 Living in a Complex World: An Introduction to Resilience Thinking	1	(27)
CASE STUDY 1 Carving up a National Icon: The Florida Everglades	15	(13)
2 The System Rules: Creating a Mind Space for Resilience Thinking	28	(25)
CASE STUDY 2 Between a (Salt) Rock and a Hard Place: The Goulburn-Broken Catchment, Australia	39	(14)
3 Crossing the Threshold: Be Careful about the Path You Choose–You May Not Be Able to Return	53	(21)
CASE STUDY 3 Losing the Jewel in the Crown: The Coral Reefs of the Caribbean	64	(10)
4 In the Loop: Phases, Cycles, and Scales—Adaptive Cycles and How Systems Change	74	(37)
CASE STUDY 4 Scenarios on the Lakes: The Northern Highlands Lake District, Wisconsin	96	(15)
5 Making Sense of Resilience: How Do You Apply Resilience Thinking?	111	(28)
CASE STUDY 5 Building Resilience in the Wetlands: The Kristianstads Vattenrike, Sweden	125	(14)
6 Creating Space in a Shrinking World: Resilience and Sustainability	139	(14)
Postscript for a Resilient World	153	(2)
Further Reading	155	(4)
References	159	(4)
Glossary	163	(4)
About the Authors	167	(2)
Index	169