Adaptive governance of riverine and wetland ecosystem goods and services

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Lance Gunderson, Emory University; Barbara Cosens, University of Idaho; Ahjond S. Gamestani, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Language: English
• Date: 2016-12-01
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the Elsevier user license.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.05.024
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Environmental Management
• Volume: 183
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 353
• End Page: 360
• Grant/Funding Information: Many of the ideas in this article were supported in part by a collaboration grant the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under funding from the National Science Foundation DBI-1052875. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not represent the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Keywords: Adaptive governance; Adaptive management; Resilience; Ecosystem services
• Research Categories: Biology, Ecology; Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences

Abstract

Adaptive governance and adaptive management have developed over the past quarter century in response to institutional and organizational failures, and unforeseen changes in natural resource dynamics. Adaptive governance provides a context for managing known and unknown consequences of prior management approaches and for increasing legitimacy in the implementation of flexible and adaptive management. Using examples from iconic water systems in the United States, we explore the proposition that adaptive management and adaptive governance are useful for evaluating the complexities of trade-offs among ecosystem goods and services.