Monitoring the resilience of rivers as social-ecological systems: a paradigm shift for river assessment in the twenty-first century

Title
Monitoring the resilience of rivers as social-ecological systems: a paradigm shift for river assessment in the twenty-first century
Publication Date
2016
Author(s)
Parsons, Melissa
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3918-7306
Email: mparson@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:mparson
Thoms, Martin
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8074-0476
Email: mthoms2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:mthoms2
Flotemersch, Joe
Reid, Michael
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3948-9347
Email: mreid24@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:mreid24
Editor
Editor(s): David J Gilvear, Malcolm T Greenwood, Martin C Thoms, Paul J Wood
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Place of publication
Chichester, United Kingdom
Edition
1
DOI
10.1002/9781118643525.ch10
UNE publication id
une:19414
Abstract
Rivers have an important role in the development and continued prosperity of many countries through, inter alia, the ecosystem services they provide. Two concepts have captured the attention of natural resource managers enthusiastic to embrace linked human-environmental dimensions of social-ecological systems: resilience thinking and ecosystem services. This chapter argues that advancing national interests in river ecosystem sustainability in the twenty-first century will require river assessment programmes to pay greater attention to the linkages between social factors and the condition of biophysical elements of river ecosystems. It briefly describes the development of the major, biophysically-focused contemporary river assessment and monitoring approaches. The chapter then assesses the utility of biophysical parameters for assessing rivers as social-ecological systems. Finally, it develops a framework describing how the social and ecological components of river ecosystems can be included in river assessment programmes, based on principles of resilience thinking and strategic adaptive management.
Link
Citation
River Science: Research and Management for the 21st Century, p. 197-220
ISBN
9781118643525
9781119994343
Start page
197
End page
220

Files:

NameSizeformatDescriptionLink