Social-ecological change: insights from the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society

Biggs, Reinette; Clements, Hayley S.; Cumming, Graeme S.; Cundill, Georgina; Vos, Alta De; Hamann, Maike; Luvuno, Linda; Roux, Dirk J.; Selomane, Odirilwe; Blanchard, Ryan; Cockburn, Jessica; Dziba, Luthando; Esler, Karen J.; Fabricius, Christo; Henriksson, Rebecka; Kotschy, Karen; Lindborg, Regina; Masterson, Vanessa A; Nel, Jeanne; O’Farrell, Patrick J.; Palmer, Carolyn G.; Pereira, Laura; Pollard, Sharon; Preiser, Rika; Scholes, Robert J.; Shackleton, Charlie M.; Shackleton, Charlie M.; Sitas, Nadia; Slingsby, Jasper A.; Spierenburg, Marja; Tengö, Maria; Reyers, Belinda

doi:10.1080/26395916.2022.2097478

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 228 publications

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“…While not necessarily intentionally inclusive, the forum originated as an informal association that was less subject to government regulation and meetings have been multiracial since the 1970s, allowing greater representation of needs and ideas and smoothing the transition into a democratic South Africa. Newer initiatives like the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society are focused on promoting transdisciplinary and engaged research that is resilient or even responsive to social and governance changes (https://sapecs.org; Biggs et al, 2022).…”

Section: Developing An Integrated Regional Ecological Forecasting Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Regional ecological forecasting across scales: A manifesto for a biodiversity hotspot

et al. 2023

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Iterative near‐term ecological forecasting has great promise to provide vital information to decision‐makers while improving our ecological understanding, yet several logistical and fundamental challenges remain. The ecoinformatics requirements are onerous to develop and maintain, posing a barrier to entry for regions where funding and expertise are limited, and there are fundamental challenges to developing forecasts that fulfil information needs spanning spatial, temporal and biological scales. Using the hyperdiverse Cape Floristic Region of South Africa as a case study, we propose that developing regionally focussed sets of ecological forecasts will help resolve logistical challenges faced by under‐resourced regions of the world, while comparison or coupling of models across scales will facilitate new fundamental insights. We review information needs and existing models for the region and explore how they could be developed into a set of linked iterative near‐term forecasts. Comparing or coupling ecological forecasts from different scales within the same domain has much potential to provide new insights for decision‐makers and ecologists alike. They allow us to quantitatively link processes in space and time, potentially revealing feedbacks, interconnections and emergent properties, while providing powerful tools for testing decision scenarios and identifying trade‐offs or unanticipated outcomes. While the development of multiple or combined ecological forecasts that span scales is not trivial, there are logistical gains to be made from developing shared ecoinformatics pipelines that feed multiple models. Even where useful forecasts do not yet exist, the pipelines can be of great value in their own right, delivering frequent and up‐to‐date information to decision‐makers while providing the basis for forecast development and other scientific research. Viewed together, regionally focussed approaches to ecological forecasting present a compelling opportunity to overcome logistical constraints and to integrate across multiple scales of organisation, ultimately improving our understanding and management of ecosystems.

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Section: Developing An Integrated Regional Ecological Forecasting Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Change and Society are focused on promoting transdisciplinary and engaged research that is resilient or even responsive to social and governance changes (https://sapecs.org; Biggs et al, 2022).…”

Section: Newer Initiatives Like the Southern African Program On Ecosy...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional ecological forecasting across scales: A manifesto for a biodiversity hotspot

et al. 2023

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“…Co-benefits become greater if, for example, economic feasibility can be linked to social improvements and environmental benefits can be linked to overall economic performance. In order to link these dimensions, it is important that experts with the correct backgrounds are bought together and work in close exchange with the local communities [53,58]. It is also crucial that the local community is involved in the development of the NBS as well as the indicators by which it will be evaluated [59], as their engagement will also bring about a sense of ownership and facilitate long-term success.…”

Section: Lessons Learntmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating Nature-Based Solutions for Water Management in Peri-Urban Areas

Hale

Tann

Rebelo

et al. 2023

Water

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The term nature-based solutions (NBS) has gained traction in recent years and has been applied in many settings. There are few comprehensive assessment frameworks available that can guide NBS planning and implementation while at the same time capturing the short- and long-term impacts and benefits of the NBS. Here a recently presented framework, which builds on the theory of change and was developed to assess NBS at different phases of the project cycle, was applied to seven diverse case studies. The case studies addressed water quality and quantity issues in peri-urban areas across the global north and south. Framework indicators covering the sustainability dimensions (environmental, social and economic) were assessed at three stages of the framework: context, process and results. The work sought to investigate the following research objectives: (1) Can this framework be robust and yet flexible enough to be applied across a diverse selection of NBS projects that are at different phases of the project cycle and address different kinds of water challenges within varied ecological, social and economic contexts? (2) Is it possible to draw generalisations from a comparative analysis of the application of the framework to the case studies? Results showed that the framework was able to be applied to the case studies; however, their diversity showed that NBS projects designed in one context, for a specific purpose in a specific location, can not necessarily be transferred easily to another location. There were several process-based indicators that were universally significant for the case studies, including expertise, skills and knowledge of the involved actors, roles and responsibilities of involved actors and political support. The result-based indicators were case study-specific when environmental indicators were case study-specific, and important social indicators were environmental identity and recreational values. Overall, the use of the framework benefits the recognition of the implementation’s advances, such as the change in context, the processes in place and the results obtained.

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“…Scholars have advanced the indicators by incorporating ecological aspects into the HDI in response to the environment's growing effect on human existence [24,25]. Both domestic and international scholars have developed indicator systems to measure the level of well-being of residents in accordance with the status of ecosystem services in various natural regions [26][27][28][29][30] since the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report proposed the contribution of ecosystem services to human well-being. A review of related studies elucidated the following: 1 Currently, studies on well-being have developed a variety of indicator systems that cover health well-being [31][32][33][34][35], psychological well-being [36][37][38][39][40][41], social well-being [42][43][44][45][46], and other aspects [47,48].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study on Temporal and Spatial Differences in Women’s Well-Being in an Ecologically Vulnerable Area in Northwest China

Liu

et al. 2023

Sustainability

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As an important driving force for economic development and social progress, women have become an important subject of well-being research. Human well-being is the state of physical and mental health as well as material affluence and includes a variety of factors, such as wealth, education, health, safety, amenities, way of life, and happiness. Based on the established research framework of the Women’s Development Index (WDI) in Northwest China, this paper first measured the objective well-being level of women in Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang from 2003 to 2020 under the influence of ecological factors. In addition, spatial disaggregation and comparative analyses of the spatial imbalance of women's well-being in Northwest China were carried out using the Theil index and Dagum Gini coefficient. The results show that (1) the WDI in ecologically vulnerable areas in Northwest China increased from 0.525 in 2003 to 0.690 in 2020, indicating an overall increase in well-being. (2) The WDI in the five provinces gradually increased with fluctuations. Among them, Shaanxi always remained in first place in terms of the WDI. (3) From 2003 to 2020, the spatial imbalance of women's well-being as measured according to the WDI in Northwest China first increased and then decreased. However, the gap in women's well-being in Northwest China was smaller than the economic gap. (4) From 2003 to 2020, the well-being gap measured by the WDI among the 10 groups of provinces in Northwest China gradually decreased, and the development gap between the provinces and Shaanxi was the largest.

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Social-ecological change: insights from the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society

Cited by 10 publications

References 228 publications

Regional ecological forecasting across scales: A manifesto for a biodiversity hotspot

Regional ecological forecasting across scales: A manifesto for a biodiversity hotspot

Evaluating Nature-Based Solutions for Water Management in Peri-Urban Areas

A Study on Temporal and Spatial Differences in Women’s Well-Being in an Ecologically Vulnerable Area in Northwest China

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