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Panarchy: Theory and Application
Citation:
Allen, C. R., D. G. Angeler, A. S. Garmestani, L. H. Gunderson, AND C. S. Holling. Panarchy: Theory and Application. ECOSYSTEMS. Springer, New York, NY, 17(4):578–589, (2014).
Impact/Purpose:
A synthesis paper on the subject matter of cross-scale resilience and panarchy in social-ecological systems, with critical implications for adaptive management and governance
Description:
The concept of panarchy was introduced by Gunderson et al. (1995) and refined by Gunderson and Holling (2002) as a heuristic model to help explain complex changes in ecosystem processes and structures within and across scales of organization. The concept takes a complex systems approach to understand ecosystem dynamics and to account for processes and structures that are mostly controlled within scales, but at other times are dominated by cross-scale linkages. It has now been a decade since the introduction of the panarchy concept, and a retrospective review of the concept and its utility is warranted. Here we conduct a retrospective and prospective synthesis of the concept of panarchy, and the evidence supporting the concept in complex systems including ecosystems, urban systems, and social systems. We discuss where the concept may or may not be useful, outline areas of research, and generate testable hypotheses that follow from the theory.
