Social-ecological system approaches for water resources management

Abstract

In the era of the Anthropocene, understanding the dynamic interactions between humans andwater is crucial for supporting both human well-being and the sustainable management ofresources. The current water management challenges are inherently unpredictable and difficultto control. Social-ecological systems (SESs) approaches explicitly recognize the connections andfeedbacks between human and natural systems. For addressing the complex challenges of theAnthropocene, consideration of SES attributes such as causality (or interdependence), feedback,non-linearity, heterogeneity, and cross-scale dynamics is important. In addition, innovative quali-tative and quantitative methods such as Bayesian networks, agent-based modelling, systemdynamics, network analysis, multicriteria analysis, integrated assessment and role-play gameshave recently been used in SES research. The overall goal of this review is to gauge the extentto which SES attributes and methods are considered within the current interdisciplinary waterparadigm. The paper therefore develops the normative theoretical characteristics of SES in termsof its key attributes (i.e. causality, feedback, heterogeneity, nonlinearity, and cross-scale dynamics)incorporated in the water paradigm approaches. The paper then compares the methods appliedin the interdisciplinary water paradigm and examines how they can complement each other.Finally, the paper reflects back on the usefulness of SES attributes and methods for assessing theinterdisciplinary water paradigm and makes recommendations for future research.