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Realizing resilience for decision-making

Nature Sustainability volume 2, pages 907–913 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Researchers and decision-makers lack a shared understanding of resilience, and practical applications in environmental resource management are rare. Here, we define social-ecological resilience as a property of social-ecological systems that includes at least three main characteristics — resistance, recovery and robustness (the ‘three Rs’). We define socio-economic resilience management as planning, adaptation and transformational actions that may influence these system characteristics. We integrate the three Rs into a heuristic for resilience management that we apply in multiple management contexts to offer practical, systematic guidance about how to realize resilience.

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Fig. 1: Possible effects of an adverse event on resistance, recovery and robustness.

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Acknowledgements

The paper was originally conceived at the ninth thematic workshop of the French Association of Environmental and Resource Economist (FAERE) entitled ‘Ecological-Economic Resilience of Ecosystems’, organized by the Groupe de Recherche en Économie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA) and held on 3–4 April 2018 at the University of Bordeaux. We are especially appreciative for the financial support of the research projects NAVIRE (Cluster of Excellence COTE, ANR-10-LABX-45) and ACROSS (ANR-14-CE03-0001) and the Hilda John Endowment. C.R. provided her contribution as part of the CGIAR Research Program Water, Land and Ecosystems. M. Loreau is acknowledged for providing comments on earlier versions of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    R. Quentin Grafton, Long Chu, John Dixon, John Williams & Paul R. Wyrwoll

  2. Research Group on Theoretical and Applied Economics, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

    R. Quentin Grafton & Luc Doyen

  3. CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

    Luc Doyen

  4. International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Cali, Colombia

    Christophe Béné

  5. Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Edoardo Borgomeo & Ariella Helfgott

  6. Kal Analysis, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Kate Brooks

  7. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia

    Graeme S. Cumming

  8. Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Stephen Dovers

  9. School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Dustin Garrick

  10. Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    Qiang Jiang

  11. Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Chatham, UK

    Pamela Katic

  12. School of Biosciences and School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Tom Kompas

  13. CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    L. Richard Little

  14. Department of Geography, King’s College London, London, UK

    Nathanial Matthews

  15. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA

    Claudia Ringler

  16. National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, Silver Spring, MD, USA

    Dale Squires

  17. Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen, Norway

    Stein Ivar Steinshamn

  18. Department of Applied Economics, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago, Spain

    Sebastián Villasante

  19. Centre for Global Food and Resources, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Sarah Wheeler

Authors
  1. R. Quentin Grafton
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  22. John Williams
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  23. Paul R. Wyrwoll
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Contributions

R.Q.G initiated and led the collaborative work, co-conceptualized the approach, co-developed the resilience heuristic, co-wrote and revised the text. L.D. co-conceptualized the approach, co-developed the resilience heuristic, co-wrote and revised the text. Alphabetically, C.B., G.S.C., S.D., A.H., P.K., L.R.L. and P.R.W., co-developed the resilience heuristic and co-wrote and revised the text. Alphabetically, E.B., K.B., J.D., D.G., Q.J., T.K., N.M., C.R., D.S., S.V., S.W., and J.W. co-wrote and revised the text. Authorship is alphabetical following R.Q.G. and L.D.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Quentin Grafton.

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Grafton, R.Q., Doyen, L., Béné, C. et al. Realizing resilience for decision-making. Nat Sustain 2, 907–913 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0376-1

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