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Social vulnerability, social-ecological resilience and coastal governance
Citation:
Jozaei, J., W. Chuang, C. Allen, AND A. Garmestani. Social vulnerability, social-ecological resilience and coastal governance. Global Sustainability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Uk, 5:e12, (2022). https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2022.10
Impact/Purpose:
This study advances understanding of how to improve environmental governance for coastal social-ecological systems, which has critical ramifications for improving coral reef outcomes. This paper moves the research on environmental governance forward by analyzing the issue, and providing guidance for moving forward. In the long-term, improving environmental governance has broad-scale implications for the environment in the United States, with particular interest for Region 2 and 4, communities and the general public.
Description:
Social vulnerability analysis has been unable to deliver outcomes that reflect the reality of vulnerability and its consequences in an era characterised by accelerating environmental change. In this work, we used critical discourse analysis and key informant interviews to understand different framings of social vulnerability in coastal governance and management, globally and in New Zealand. We found that the framing of system vulnerability could vary depending on the definition of resilience adopted, which has critical ramifications for coastal governance of linked systems of humans and nature. We found that the framing of social vulnerability in coastal governance is mainly influenced by engineering, community and disaster resilience, focusing on return and recovery governance responses to environmental change (e.g. hurricanes, wildfires). Instead, we suggest a novel perspective based on social-ecological resilience, which more accurately reflects the dynamics of linked systems of humans and nature (SES). This revised perspective, general vulnerability, accounts for the dynamics of Earth's systems across various spatial and temporal scales in the face of accelerating environmental change. Accounting for social-ecological resilience and its core aspects (i.e. panarchy, adaptation and transformation) is essential for informing coastal governance of SES (Do we adapt? or Do we transform the SES?).
