The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Dealing with uncertainty: adaptive approaches to sustainable river management

Dealing with uncertainty: adaptive approaches to sustainable river management
Dealing with uncertainty: adaptive approaches to sustainable river management
1. Sustainable river management is the proclaimed aim of many agencies and institutions, but it remains challenging to bring this worthy ideal from the level of political rhetoric to that of practical river management.
2. Amongst the many drivers that already pressure the river manager, from internal institutional goals, through political aspirations to systemic change within the biophysical process system, one common element emerges, that of prevailing uncertainty.
3. Once it has been accepted that conventional science and engineering approaches to uncertainty (risk) minimization may be sub-optimal in a truly holistic (biophysical, socio-economic, political) system, the challenge emerges of developing a more appropriate framework without destroying over-burdened managers and management systems in the process.
4. It is argued that the necessary components are often already in place or under consideration. A linked model is proposed comprising practical measures of sustainability, robust approaches to uncertainty (if necessary, involving attitude change), responsive (adaptive) management frameworks, and an important underpinning of fuzzy decision support.
river management, sustainable management, adaptive management, uncertainty, decision support, stakeholder participation
1052-7613
347-363
Clark, M.J.
1d51194b-87b8-4c3d-bb47-41c0237ea41e
Clark, M.J.
1d51194b-87b8-4c3d-bb47-41c0237ea41e

Clark, M.J. (2002) Dealing with uncertainty: adaptive approaches to sustainable river management. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 12 (4), 347-363. (doi:10.1002/aqc.531).

Record type: Article

Abstract

1. Sustainable river management is the proclaimed aim of many agencies and institutions, but it remains challenging to bring this worthy ideal from the level of political rhetoric to that of practical river management.
2. Amongst the many drivers that already pressure the river manager, from internal institutional goals, through political aspirations to systemic change within the biophysical process system, one common element emerges, that of prevailing uncertainty.
3. Once it has been accepted that conventional science and engineering approaches to uncertainty (risk) minimization may be sub-optimal in a truly holistic (biophysical, socio-economic, political) system, the challenge emerges of developing a more appropriate framework without destroying over-burdened managers and management systems in the process.
4. It is argued that the necessary components are often already in place or under consideration. A linked model is proposed comprising practical measures of sustainability, robust approaches to uncertainty (if necessary, involving attitude change), responsive (adaptive) management frameworks, and an important underpinning of fuzzy decision support.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 2002
Keywords: river management, sustainable management, adaptive management, uncertainty, decision support, stakeholder participation

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 14873
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/14873
ISSN: 1052-7613
PURE UUID: 860c00c0-56a5-48f1-9673-8fd6b1bdaf42

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 09 Mar 2005
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:32

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: M.J. Clark

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×