Technical challenges in the application of adaptive management
Resource type
Authors/contributors
- Williams, Byron K. (Author)
- Brown, Eleanor D. (Author)
Title
Technical challenges in the application of adaptive management
Abstract
Adaptive management is an approach for simultaneously managing and learning about natural resources, by acknowledging uncertainty and seeking to reduce it through the process of management itself. Adaptive decision making can be applied to pressing issues in conservation biology such as species reintroduction, disease and invasive species control, and habitat restoration, as well as to management of natural resources in general. After briefly outlining a framework and process for adaptive management, we focus on an overview of the key technical issues related to problem framing and the ability of resource managers to learn from their experience. These technical issues include the treatment of uncertainty and its propagation over time; nonstationarity in long-term environmental trends; the applicability of adaptive management across scales; requirements for models and management alternatives that promote learning; the value of the information produced with adaptive management; the challenge to management of uncertainty and surprise; and institutional (social) learning. To accommodate these and other challenges that are now coming into focus, the learning-based approach of adaptive management will need to be adjusted and expanded in the future.
Publication
Biological Conservation
Volume
195
Pages
255-263
Date
March 1, 2016
Journal Abbr
Biological Conservation
ISSN
0006-3207
Accessed
25/02/2019, 11:29
Library Catalogue
ScienceDirect
Citation
Williams, B. K., & Brown, E. D. (2016). Technical challenges in the application of adaptive management. Biological Conservation, 195, 255–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.01.012
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