A Transdisciplinary Approach to Integrated Resource Management: A Pragmatic Application of Ecological Economics

Abstract

This thesis reports how the best practice for dealing with complex environmental management problems has been advanced. This has resulted from the development of a series of tools that facilitate the use of participative decision making as an integrated part of the overall public decision making process. The methodological basis for these tools has been developed based on a synthesis of recent scholarship in the fields of ecological economics, systems theory, learning organisations, and the 'new sciences' of chaos and complexity. The case studies for this work were all related to the integrated management of catchments, and thus the findings are of direct relevance to practitioners in this area. As part of the research, some epistemological aspects of transdisciplinary research have been explored, and a number of indicators of transdisciplinarity identified. Following from this, a transdisciplinary methodology, Participative Environmental Management (PEM), has been articulated. PEM is a stakeholder driven, participative learning approach to complex anthropo-environmental problems such as are encountered within the general area of integrated resource management. PEM provides a structured approach so that effective integration across the social, economic and ecological dimensions of environmental problems can better be achieved than has been the case previously. As a fundamentally transdisciplinary approach, PEM has the potential to influence future theoretical and practical developments within the transdiscipline of ecological economics.