Priming the Governance System for Climate Change Adaptation: The Application of a Social Ecological Inventory (SEI) to Engage Actors in Niagara, Canada

Adaptive systems of governance are increasingly gaining attention in respect to complex and uncertain social-ecological systems. Adaptive co-management is one strategy to make adaptive governance operational and holds promise with respect to community climate change adaptation as it facilitates participation and learning across scales and fosters adaptive capacity and resilience. Developing tools which hasten the realization of such approaches are growing in importance. This paper describes explores the Social Ecological Inventory (SEI) as a tool to 'prime' a regional climate change adaptation network. The SEI tool draws upon the social-ecological systems approach in which social and ecological systems are considered linked. SEIs bridge the gap between conventional stakeholder analysis and biological inventories and take place through a six phase process. A case study describes the results of applying an SEI to prime an adaptive governance network for climate change adaptation in the Niagara Region of Canada. Lessons learned from the case study are discussed and highlight how the SEI catalyzed the adaptive co-management process in the case. Future avenues for SEIs in relation to climate change adaptation emerge from this exploratory work and offer opportunities to inform research and adaptation planning

Resilience: An Annotated Bibliography

This annotated bibliography provides an account of the research that has been done on engineering resilience, ecological resilience, and social-ecological resilience. Undertaken as part of the WEPGN research project titled “Applying resilience analysis to a transboundary river system: Developing surrogates for institutions and governance”, this annotated bibliography investigates factors that lead to greater resilience, with a focus on institutions and governance. Citations for key scholarly publications related to three types of resilience – engineering, ecological, and social-ecological – are listed in the first three sections along with a brief summary of each work. The fourth and final section of the document provides additional resources on resilience

Appliquer l’analyse de la résilience à un réseau hydrographique transfrontalier : le développement de substituts pour la gouvernance

L’incertitude et la complexité ont favorisé une évolution vers la perspective des systèmes adaptatifs complexes. La résilience socioécologique s’intéresse, conceptuellement, à la quantité de changement qu’un système peut supporter, au degré d’auto-organisation possible et à la capacité d’apprentissage et d’adaptation. La compréhension des seuils et les changements de régime sont essentiels pour l’adaptabilité et les transformations. D’un point de vue méthodologique, l’analyse et la mesure de la résilience faisaient appel à des trajectoires ou cadres pour la modélisation du système à l’étude et pour le développement de substituts de la résilience. L’application de la résilience et de ses processus analytiques a été principalement développée pour les écosystèmes. L’application de la résilience au monde social est originale et exige des considérations additionnelles. Il est donc possible de se concentrer sur des aspects de la gouvernance et de prendre appui sur les travaux antérieurs abordant la résilience de réseaux hydrographiques

Applying Resilience Analysis to a Transboundary River System: Developing Surrogates for Governance

Uncertainty and complexity has prompted movement towards a complex adaptive systems viewpoint. Social-ecological resilience is conceptually concerned with the amount of change a system can withstand, the degree of self-organization possible, and the ability to learn and adapt. Understanding thresholds and regimes shifts are critical to adaptability and transformations. Methodologically, resilience analysis and measurement has involved pathways or frameworks for modeling the system of interest and developing resilience surrogates. Application of resilience and its analytical processes have primarily been developed for ecosystems. Application of resilience to the social world is unique and requires additional considerations. An opportunity thus exists to focus on aspects of governance and to build upon initial works addressing the resilience of river systems

Appraising HEI-community Partnerships: Assessing Performance, Monitoring Progress, and Evaluating Impacts

Momentum of the creation of partnerships between higher education institutions (HEIs) and communities is strong. As their significance intensifies, the question of how to judge their value is garnering increasing attention. In this perspective article, we develop a framework for comprehensively appraising HEI-community partnerships. Constituent parts of the framework are unpacked, and application of the framework is then discussed. The appraisal framework provides a mechanism to document evidence of worth, and most importantly contributes to the continuous improvement and learning imperative of HEI-community partnerships

Innovation and adaptation in the Ontario grape and wine industry: An integrated, transdisciplinary response to climate change

With scientific consensus supporting a 4oC increase in global mean temperature over the next century and increased frequency of severe weather events, adaptation to climate change is critical. Given the dynamic and complex nature of climate change, a transdisciplinary approach toward adaptation can create an environment that supports knowledge sharing and innovation, improving existing strategies and creating new ones. The Ontario wine industry provides a case study to illustrate the benefits of this approach. We describe the formation and work of the Ontario Grape and Wine Research Network within this context, and present some preliminary results to highlight the opportunities for innovation that will drive the successful adaption of the Ontario grape and wine industry.Thank you to all our partners in The Ontario Grape and Wine Research Network. The support of the Ontario Research Fund for Research Excellence Funding (Round 5), Ontario Grape and Wine Research Inc., the Wine Council of Ontario, the Grape Growers of Ontario, and the Winery and Growers Alliance of Ontario is gratefully acknowledged

Transdisciplinary partnerships for sustainability: an evaluation guide

Transdisciplinary research, in which academics and actors from outside the academy co-produce knowledge, is an important approach to address urgent sustainability challenges. Indeed, to meet these real-world challenges, governments, universities, development agencies, and civil society organizations have made substantial investments in transdisciplinary partnerships. Yet to date, our understanding of the performance, as well as impacts, of these partnerships for sustainability is limited. Here, we provide a guide to assess the performance and impacts of transdisciplinary partnerships for sustainability. We offer key steps to navigate and examine the partnership process for continuous improvement, and to understand how transdisciplinary partnership is contributing to sustainable futures

Contemporary Water Governance: Navigating Crisis Response and Institutional Constraints through Pragmatism

Water has often been the source of crises and their frequency will intensify due to climate change impacts. The Niagara River Watershed provides an ideal case to study water crises as it is an international transboundary system (Canada-United States) and has both historical and current challenges associated with water quantity and quality, which resonates broadly in water basins throughout the world. The aim of this study was to understand how stakeholders perceive ecosystems and the relationship with preferences for governance approaches in the context of water governance. An online survey instrument was employed to assess perceptions of the system in terms of resilience (engineering, ecological, social-ecological, or epistemic), preferences for governance approaches (state, citizen, market, and hybrid forms), and the most pressing issues in the watershed. Responses showed that, despite demographic differences and adherence to different resilience perspectives, support was strongest for governance approaches that focused on state or state-citizen hybrid forms. The validity of the resilience typology as a grouping variable is discussed. The roles of institutional constraints, pragmatism in governance approach preferences, and the influence of multiple crises are explored in relation to the context of the study site, as well as to water governance scholarship more broadly.Funding for this work, as part of the Climate Change Adaptation and Water Governance (CADWAGO) project, from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Volkswagen Stiftung and Compagnia di San Paolo through the Europe and Global Challenges programme.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/22