Resilience is “the ability of a system to absorb disturbance and re-organise so as to retain the same structure, function, feedbacks and (therefore) identity.” Resilience Alliance
The discussion held at the Resilience Forum with Dr Brian Walker(see conferences/events page on www.widcorp.com) sparked considerable interest with respect to how resilience thinking can be applied to the Western Victoria region. The discussion was guided by the following questions raised by Dr Brian Walker:
i) Can you develop an evolving list of “slow” variables that have, or might have, thresholds, at various scales, that the region should be concerned about?
ii) And, at the same time, how do you maintain or enhance general resilience? What are the systems building blocks?
Groups identified social ecological and economic variables which are likely to take the system to its threshold, and nominated underlying factors which enhance the resilience of the region:
Social/Econmic Resilience
Social/Economic 'slow variables' suggeted as affecting the West Victoria region were:
Population, natural resources, transport/access, knowlege and values, demographics, climate, food supply, water, structural adjustments, landuse and agriculture, social networking, connectedness, ecological footprint, equity.
Social/Economic building blocks suggested were broadly grouped as:
Access to resources (natural resources); access to infrastructure and services; access to knowledge; diversity of expertise; and access to social networks.
Environmental Resilience
Environmental slow moving variables:
Biodiversity, temperature, water, soil health, population, land cover
Environmental building blocks suggested were:
Biodiversity (distribution and density), knowledge and management systems; social values and behaviour, native vegetation resources, water management and allocation.
Obviously it is not a suprise that the three domains are interrelated.
From your perspective, are there other variables or building blocks to add to this list? Do you have comments on the list in general? Does this list relate to your region or is there something else to consider?
Please relay your thoughts to this discussion. Click on 'Add comment' below.
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