Resilience-based management of natural ...

In anthropogenically exploited systems the use of natural resources, such as water and soil, are embedded in complex social‐ecological systems (SESs). To ensure the sustainability of the SESs, a resilience based management which considers both social and ecological elements, is fundamental. In the past a lack of adequate management has often resulted in overexploitation of water and soil resources and subsequently disrupted the relationships within the respective SES. Consequently, unforeseen degradation of ecosystems results in a decline in the livelihoods of local communities and the benefits that people can obtain from ecosystems, as well as increased economic costs. In addition, poor institutional structures and processes related to resource utilization, weak policies and environmental factors like droughts, floods, fires or other unpredictable events have ruptured the resilience of SES in many areas worldwide.

Nowadays geosciences have brought forward new sophisticated observations and modeling tools, with the aim to improve predictions of ecological developments. At the same time, the added value of linking ecological factors to the surrounding social structures and processes has received growing acceptance. A social‐ecological system framework, as proposed by Nobel Prize winner E. Ostrom in 2007, brings in a holistic understanding of how these systems are inevitably interlinked and how their sustainability can be better maintained. We claim that the biggest challenge for geoscience in the coming decades will be to establish a link between these disciplines in order to generate adequate strategies to restore and preserve ecosystems, their functions and resilience, parallel to their utilization.