Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing WorldIncreasingly, cracks are appearing in the capacity of communities, ecosystems, and landscapes to provide the goods and services that sustain our planet's well-being. The response from most quarters has been for "more of the same" that created the situation in the first place: more control, more intensification, and greater efficiency. "Resilience thinking" offers a different way of understanding the world and a new approach to managing resources. It embraces human and natural systems as complex entities continually adapting through cycles of change, and seeks to understand the qualities of a system that must be maintained or enhanced in order to achieve sustainability. It explains why greater efficiency by itself cannot solve resource problems and offers a constructive alternative that opens up options rather than closing them down. In Resilience Thinking, scientist Brian Walker and science writer David Salt present an accessible introduction to the emerging paradigm of resilience. The book arose out of appeals from colleagues in science and industry for a plainly written account of what resilience is all about and how a resilience approach differs from current practices. Rather than complicated theory, the book offers a conceptual overview along with five case studies of resilience thinking in the real world. It is an engaging and important work for anyone interested in managing risk in a complex world. |
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An essential book for getting a grasp on the theories of resilience. Written in plain simple language
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One of the most readable and accessible academic books on resilience theory I have come across, with very well articulated case studies to illustrate and groudn the theory.
Contents
| 1 | |
WalkerSalt CH 22852 | 28 |
WalkerSalt CH 35373 | 53 |
WalkerSalt CH 474108 | 74 |
WalkerSalt CH 5109138 | 111 |
WalkerSalt CH 6139152 | 139 |
WalkerSalt BM153176 | 153 |
Other editions - View all
Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World Brian Walker,David Salt No preview available - 2006 |
Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World Brian Walker,David Salt No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
absorb disturbance adaptive cycles agricultural back loop basin of attraction capacity Caribbean cattails Cogworld complex adaptive systems components conservation phase coral reefs created crisis crossed a threshold decline drought dynamics ecological systems economic ecosys ecosystem services efficiency environmental equilibrium eutrophication Everglades example farm farmers feedbacks fish flooded meadows Florida fore loop forest functional groups future global Goulburn-Broken Catchment groundwater growth happen Helgeå Helgeå River Holling human important increase irrigation kilometers Kristianstad Lac du Flambeau lake land landscape levels Millennium Ecosystem Assessment move natural resource networks NHLD nutrients optimal options panarchy percent phosphorus population problems production regime shift region release phase reorganization phase Resilience Alliance resilience approach resilience thinking resilient world resource management response diversity sawgrass scales scenarios sediment shocks slow variables social social-ecological systems soil species sustainability system’s resilience things tion transformation trees understanding vulnerable water table wetland what’s
Popular passages
Page 4 - The number of species on the planet is declining. Over the past few hundred years, humans have increased the species extinction rate by as much as 1,000 times over background rates typical over the planet's history (medium certainty), [referenced chart not copied here] Some 10-30 percent of mammal, bird, and amphibian species are currently threatened with extinction (medium to high certainty).
Bibliographic information
| Title | Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World |
| Authors | Brian Walker, David Salt |
| Contributor | Walter Reid |
| Edition | revised |
| Publisher | Island Press, 2012 |
| ISBN | 1597266221, 9781597266222 |
| Length | 192 pages |
| Subjects | › Nature / Ecology Nature / General Science / Environmental Science Science / System Theory |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |