Socio-environmental Systems

As individuals and communities we live within socio-environmental systems. These systems are dauntingly complex because they include all the variability of natural and cultural systems. In this program we cannot possibly provide even a reasonable overview of the processes and problems of even one socio-environmental system. However, the complexity of these systems illustrates why our efforts to live wisely and gently on Earth presents such a multiplicity of wicked problems.

Here are links to descriptions of two socio-environmental systems, one from the Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center at the University of Maryland and one from the Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm University. 

The Yale School of the Environment is another premier research and teaching facility that focuses on socio-environmental systems. Browse around and also note the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. 

We suggest the triple bottom line as a conceptual model for a resilient socio-environmental system. The triple bottom line is a modern expression of the Greek word oikos, which means home. Oikos is the root word of both economics and ecology. It implies a vision of home that embraces the factors included in the three spheres. The triple bottom line is often called the 3Ps -- People, Planet, and Prosperity.

The triple bottom line concept does not imply a specific economic system. The Harvard Business School wrote: "Business leaders are increasingly realizing the power of sustainable business strategies in not only addressing the world’s most pressing challenges but driving their firms’ success."  However, there are political positions which maintain that business should not serve anything other than the single bottom line. 

We don't have to manage the environment. It has done quite well on its own for about 3.5 billion years. What we can, and must, manage is our relationships to the environment. The complexity of socio-environmental systems notwithstanding, over the last few decades we developed an approach that seems to work because it mimics the adaptability of natural systems. 

Adaptive management is a process for making decisions that involves learning and improving management practices over time. It's a "learning by doing" approach that's useful when there's uncertainty about the best way to manage natural resources or other systems.

We envision an action and make a plan for it. We put the plan into action. We then monitor and incorporate new information as possible, We evaluate and adjust all parts of the plan as we go in a dynamic process. This is inherently a resilience management method because it is sensitive to the system and changes its actions when needed.

For more detail, read "Adaptive Management, Monitoring, and Analysis" from the US Forest Service.