Transformative capacity of social-ecological systems

From the local to the global scale, the world is rapidly changing in non-linear ways that are only partly predictable and knowable. Currently, human decision making and ingenuity in response to change focuses on mitigating the drivers and effects of change and adapting to those changes. However, the Anthropocene poses unique challenges, and there are instances where maintaining the current system is no longer possible and transformation becomes necessary. The process of intentionally transforming a social-ecological system (SES) to a more desirable, novel, self-organizing dynamic state, is risky and unpredictable. Transformation is predicated on transformative capacity, that is the potential for a SES to be…

• UE
  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• UO
  University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• IO
  Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources