Father of Resilience Theory

Austrian Cross for
Science and Art
Awards and Honors

Seven principles for building resilience in social-ecological systems:
1) Maintain diversity and redundancy
2) Manage connectivity
3) Manage slow variables and feed backs
4) Foster complex adaptive systems thinking
5) Encourage learning
6) Broaden participation
7) Promote polycentric governance systems

Editors –in- Chief
Carl Folke, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden
Lance Gunderson, Emory University, USA
Founding Editor- in- Chief
C.S. Holling
• An electron journal
• Peer- reviewed
• Multidisciplinary
• Devoted to the rapid dissemination of current research
Carl Folke and Lance Gunderson

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Engineered Resilience Vs. Ecological Resilience comiteresources.net
b.wagner

Theoretical Framework

Behaviors of a system

The Basin of Attraction

Four aspects:
1. Latitude: the maximum amount a system can be changed before losing it ability to recover
2. Resistance: the ease or difficulty of changing the system; how “resistant” it is to being changed
3. Precariousness: how close the current state of the system is to the limit
4. Panarchy: how the above three attributes are influenced by the state of dynamics of the system at scales above and below the scale of interest
Bayouwoman.com
b.wagner

Actors can:
1. Move the current state of a system away from or closer to the threshold
2. Make the threshold more difficult or easier to reach
3. Manage cross-scale interaction to avoid or generate loss of resilience
4. Managing for single state equilibrium can be a paradox mauricekerrigan.com

How Ecosystems Function:
The Adaptive Cycle

Ecology
Economics
Social Systems

Local Regional Global

• Resilience Alliance www.resalliance.org
• Ecology and Society www.ecologyandsociety.org
• Holling, C S. "Resilience And Stability Of Ecological Systems." Annual Review of Ecology and
Systematics (): 1-23. Print.
• Holling, C. S.. "Cross-Scale Morphology, Geometry, and Dynamics of Ecosystems." Ecological
Monographs (): 447. Print.
• Gunderson, Lance H.. Panarchy: understanding transformations in human and natural systems.
Washington, DC: Island Press, 2002. Print.
• Holling, C. S.. Adaptive environmental assessment and management. Laxenburg, Austria:
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis ;, 1978. Print
• Gunderson, Lance , C.S. Holling, L. Pritchard, and G.D. Peterson. ”Resilience” Encyclopedia of global change: environmental change and human society. Volume 2: The Earth system: biological and ecological dimension of global environmental change pg. 530-531.