Empirical Social-Ecological System Analysis: From Theoretical Framework to Latent Variable Structural Equation Model

The social-ecological system (SES) approach to natural resource management holds enormous promise towards achieving sustainability. Despite this promise, social-ecological interactions are complex and elusive; they require simplification to guide effective application of the SES approach. The complex, adaptive and place-specific nature of human-environment interactions impedes determination of state and trends in SES parameters of interest to managers and policy makers. Based on a rigorously developed systemic theoretical model, this paper integrates field observations, interviews, surveys, and latent variable modeling to illustrate the development of simplified and easily interpretable indicators of the state of, and trends in, relevant SES processes. Social-agricultural interactions in the Logone floodplain, in the Lake Chad basin, served as case study. This approach is found to generate simplified determinants of the state of SESs, easily communicable across the array of stakeholders common in human-environment interactions. The approach proves to be useful for monitoring SESs, guiding interventions, and assessing the effectiveness of interventions. It incorporates real time responses to biophysical change in understanding coarse scale processes within which finer scales are embedded. This paper emphasizes the importance of merging quantitative and qualitative methods for effective monitoring and assessment of SESs.     

Agricultural productivity and environmental insecurity in the Usangu plain, Tanzania: policy implications for sustainability of agriculture

Sustainable agricultural development is a necessity for sustainable economic growth and social development in Africa. Sustainable agriculture largely depends on how effective natural and environmental resources are managed and utilized; it also depends on the security of continuous access to such resources. This research was aimed to look into trends in agricultural productivity, examine the persistence of the environmental insecurity, analyze the relationship between the two, and explore their links to the national development policies. The results are discussed in the context of relevance to national development policies and their implications on the sustainability of agriculture and rural livelihoods security. Literature survey, records collection from the stakeholders, village level participatory assessments (PAs), observations and questionnaire survey were tools used for data collection. The study shows significant (P < 0.01) declines in cereal crop yields, cattle milk yield and cattle calving rate, and increasing cattle mortality rate. Elements of environmental insecurity were found to account for decline in agricultural productivity; significant (P < 0.01) proportion (68%), of 266 households interviewed, reported land resources deterioration, declining soil fertility, and increasing drought frequencies as the causes of their low productivity. Declined fertilizer consumption and increasing variability in rainfall amount significantly (P < 0.01) accounted for 59% and 39%, respectively, of the variations observed in total annual production of rice and maize, which are major cereals in the study area. This study recommends measures to improve soil productivity such as improved fertilizer application and use of organic manures along with mineral fertilizers for maintaining soil productivity; education of farmers on sustainable use and management of land resources; and pro-poor rural policies in agricultural development and environmental governance. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

城市韧性多因素综合评估模型研究

为避免突发事件发生时城市系统因缺乏前瞻性防范而造成严重损失,结合城市灾害事件严重度、承灾体脆弱性、适应力、抵御力和恢复力5个城市韧性影响因素,同时考虑相关指标完备性以及数据获取难易程度,构建城市韧性多因素综合评估模型,并结合湖南省实际数据对所建模型进行应用与分析。结果表明：城市韧性多因素综合评估模型基于城市韧性主要特点,可反映城市韧性分布情况,发现城市安全发展中存在的薄弱环节,为相关城市管理者开展城市韧性建设提供决策辅助。     

Community resilience and urban planning in tsunami-prone settlements in Chile

Urban planning can serve to minimise the effects of a tsunami and enhance community resilience. This study explores to what extent urban planning has addressed tsunami resilience in four villages on Chile's South Pacific coast, each of which was struck by tsunamis in 1960, 2010, and 2015. Through a detailed policy review and semi-structured interviews with residents, this paper analyses whether tsunami mitigation policies were incorporated into regional and local planning tools. It finds that although the government proposed relocation to tsunami-safe areas after the tsunami of 1960, urban development continued mainly in tsunami inundation zones—in the context of weak local planning frameworks and in the absence of community participation. In only one of the four case studies did participatory planning bring about the relocation of an entire village to a safe location. This paper concludes that incorporating participatory risk zone planning into urban planning enhances tsunami resilience.     

Application of Fair Trade certification for wild plants: lessons from a FairWild project in India

Based on a study of an experimental wild plant certification project implemented within a tribal community in India, this paper explores how wild plant collectors respond to two contradictory objectives of certification, namely, conserving a targeted plant species while promoting its sale. By providing economic incentives through certification, the project aimed to induce a shift from the collection of immature berries to mature berries from a targeted tree species. However, the majority of the collectors increased their harvests of mature berries while continuing to collect the same quantities of immature berries. This unanticipated project outcome can be attributed to the unique nature of wild plants as an uncertain income source that requires no investment. Evidently, collectors have developed their own concepts of ecological and economic sustainability derived from this unique income source endowed by nature, and have incorporated the new economic opportunity into their own natural resource management strategies.     

Resilience-based approach to safety barrier performance assessment in process facilities

The performance assessment of safety barriers is essential to find vulnerable elements in a safety barrier system. Traditional performance assessment approaches mainly focus on using several static indicators for quantifying the performance of safety barriers. However, with the increasing complexity of the system, emerging hazards are highly uncertain, making it challenging for the static indicators to assess the performance of safety barriers. This paper proposes a resilience−based performance assessment method for safety barriers to overcome this problem. Safety barriers are classified according to their functions first. The dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) is then introduced to calculate the availability function under normal and disruption conditions. The ratio of the system's availability, when affected by the disruption, to the initial availability, is used to determine the absorption capacity of the system. The ratio of the quantity of availability recovery to the total quantity of system represents the adaptation and restoration capacity of the system. The system's resilience is represented by the sum of absorption, adaptation, and restoration capacities. The wax oil hydrogenation process is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology.     

Examining the impacts of disaster resettlement from a livelihood perspective: a case study of Qinling Mountains,China

Disaster resettlement, as a mitigation and preparedness measure, entails significant economic, physical, and social impacts, which continue to challenge understanding of recovery from major events, especially regarding the extent of the context and environmental efforts to rebuild livelihoods. Based on a case study of Qinling Mountains, China, this research investigates the effects of disaster resettlement from a livelihoods perspective. Methodologically, it proposes a framework that combines the pressure–state–response framework and the sustainable livelihoods approach, and it employs a structural equation model to examine how specific factors affect disaster resettlement. The results indicate that conflicts may occur during and after resettlement owing to the difference or disparity between the concerns of resettled peasants and those of the government. Consequently, the risks related to livelihoods need to be taken seriously. Effective risk communication is critical to bridge the gap between different stakeholders. The paper concludes with some practical and policy recommendations.     

Building community resilience in a context of climate change: The role of social capital

Social capital is considered important for resilience across social levels, including communities, yet insights are scattered across disciplines. This meta-synthesis of 187 studies examines conceptual and empirical understandings of how social capital relates to resilience, identifying implications for community resilience and climate change practice. Different conceptualisations are highlighted, yet also limited focus on underlying dimensions of social capital and proactive types of resilience for engaging with the complex climate change challenge. Empirical insights show that structural and socio-cultural aspects of social capital, multiple other factors and formal actors are all important for shaping the role of social capital for guiding resilience outcomes. Thus, finding ways to work with these different elements is important. Greater attention on how and why outcomes emerge, interactions between factors, approaches of formal actors and different socio-cultural dimensions will advance understandings about how to nurture social capital for resilience in the context of climate change.     

农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的影响因素——基于野外土地利用测量与入户调查

恢复力作为刻画人类自身响应和发挥主体能力、积极抵御和适应外界变化的指标,在灾害学领域的引入进一步丰富和明晰了灾害承灾体的性质,与脆弱性具有同等的重要性。但当前对灾害恢复力的研究不足,如何界定灾害恢复力的特征、诊断和定量评价恢复力尚存在较大的探讨空间。在湖南鼎城高排河流域野外土地利用现状测量与入户调查所得数据和气象数据的基础上,应用数学统计方法重点分析了土地利用、农户经济、文化素质状况等因素与农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的关系。结果表明,地貌类型与海拔高度从较大尺度上决定了农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的大小,水源地位置及其蓄水能力、水田与旱地的比例关系、劳动力文化水平、农户实际年收入和非农收入比例是影响农业旱灾承灾体恢复力的主要因素。     

Efficacy of insurance for organisational disaster recovery: case study of the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes

Insurance is widely acknowledged to be an important component of an organisation's disaster preparedness and resilience. Yet, little analysis exists of how well current commercial insurance policies and practices support organisational recovery in the wake of a major disaster. This exploratory qualitative research, supported by some quantitative survey data, evaluated the efficacy of commercial insurance following the sequence of earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand, in 2010 and 2011. The study found that, generally, the commercial insurance sector performed adequately, given the complexity of the events. However, there are a number of ways in which insurers could improve their operations to increase the efficacy of commercial insurance cover and to assist organisational recovery following a disaster. The most notable of these are: (i) better wording of policies; (ii) the availability of sector‐specific policies; (iii) the enhancement of claims assessment systems; and (iv) risk‐based policy pricing to incentivise risk reduction measures.