Applying Resilience Thinking to Natural Resource Management through a “Planning-By-Doing” Framework

Natural resource management (NRM) organizations are increasingly looking to resilience thinking to provide insights into how social and environmental systems interact and to identify points of intervention. Drawing on complex systems analysis, resilience thinking emphasizes that landscapes constantly change from social and ecological interactions, and focuses NRM planners’ attention on identifying key variables, feedbacks, and thresholds that can help improve intervention strategies. More deliberative approaches are being developed to use resilience thinking in ways that engage and build human capacity for action. This article documents experiences shared with NRM agencies in rural Australia as we developed new approaches to link resilience thinking with collective learning principles. We present an emerging framework through which heuristics associated with resilience thinking is being used as part of a planning-by-doing process. The framework is being tested to assess whether and how it can enable change agents to advance their capacities for adaptation and transformation.     

Numerical Simulation Study on the Scientific and Methodological Aspects of the Brazilian Proposal

1. IntroductionObservations of surface air temperature indicatethat a significant global average warming has occurredduring the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change (IPCC, 2001) concludes that thereis new and stronger evidence that man has influencedthe climate. International negotiations have led to afirst step in combating climate change with the UnitedNations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, but further stepsare needed in …     

Impact of pore fluid chemistry on the thermal conductivity of bentonite–sand mixture

Thermal conductivity is an important parameter to consider when designing clay-based barriers for use in deep geological repositories (DGR). In the DGR environment, the infiltration of local saline groundwater can potentially change the pore fluid chemistry of a barrier over its lifetime. This change in chemistry is known to alter the thermal properties of the barrier materials. In order to examine the impact of pore fluid salinity on thermal conductivity, experiments were conducted under both distilled water and saline pore fluid conditions. The material mixtures were prepared at two different dry densities using two different salt types. Furthermore, five different thermal conductivity prediction models were selected and evaluated on their performance with respect to the experimental outcomes. In general, these results indicated that an increase in the constituent pore fluid’s salt concentration leads to a decrease in the thermal conductivity of the material. Additionally, the thermal conductivity values of the materials prepared at a high dry density were greater than of those compacted at a low dry density.     

RECENT GLACIER CHANGES IN THE WIND RIVER RANGE,WYOMING

Parallax measurements on matching aerial photograph stereopairs from 1958 and 1983 were used to calculate the ice lost from Dinwoody Glacier in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. The ice remaining in Dinwoody Glacier was measured using a portable radio echo-sounder. Isopach maps of lost ice thickness and remaining ice thickness in the glacier were constructed from these point measurements. Calculations of lost and remaining ice volumes, converted to water-equivalent values, were derived from planimetric measurements from these isopach maps. The water equivalent remaining in Dinwoody Glacier is approximately equal to that lost between 1958 and 1983. Should this rate of downwasting and retreat continue, Dinwoody Glacier will disappear in 27 years, with significant adverse impacts on late summer and early fall water supplies for downstream irrigators and instream flow needs. [Key words: glaciers, glacier runoff, radio echo-sounding, Wind River Range, Wyoming.]     

Geochemical imaging of flow near an artificial recharge facility, Orange County, California

Critical for the management of artificial recharge operations is detailed knowledge of ground water dynamics near spreading areas. Geochemical tracer techniques including stable isotopes of water, tritium/helium-3 (T/3He) dating, and deliberate gas tracer experiments are ideally suited for these investigations. These tracers were used to evaluate flow near an artificial recharge site in northern Orange County, California, where approximately 2.5 x 10(8) m3 (200,000 acre-feet) of water are recharged annually. T/3He ages show that most of the relatively shallow ground water within 3 km of the recharge facilities have apparent ages < 2 years; further downgradient apparent ages increase, reaching > 20 years at approximately 6 km. Gas tracer experiments using sulfur hexafluoride and xenon isotopes were conducted from the Santa Ana River and two spreading basins. These tracers were followed in the ground water for more than two years, allowing subsurface flow patterns and flow times to be quantified. Results demonstrate that mean horizontal ground water velocities range from < 1 to > 4 km/year. The leading edges of the tracer patch moved at velocities about twice as fast as the center of mass. Leading edge velocities are important when considering the potential transport of microbes and other "time sensitive" contaminants and cannot be determined easily with other methods. T/3He apparent ages and tracer travel times agreed within the analytical uncertainty at 16 of 19 narrow screened monitoring wells. By combining these techniques, ground water flow was imaged with time scales on the order of weeks to decades.     

N/N variations in Cretaceous Atlantic sedimentary sequences: implication for past changes in marine nitrogen biogeochemistry

At two locations in the Atlantic Ocean (DSDP Sites 367 and 530) early to middle Cretaceous organic-carbon-rich beds (“black shales”) were found to have significantly lower δ¹⁵N values (lower¹⁵N/¹⁴N ratios) than adjacent organic-carbon-poor beds (white limestones or green claystones). While these lithologies are of marine origin, the black strata in particular have °¹⁵N values that are significantly lower than those previously found in the marine sediment record and most contemporary marine nitrogen pools. In contrast, black, organic-carbon-rich beds at a third site (DSDP Site 603) contain predominantly terrestrial organic matter and have C- and N-isotopic compositions similar to organic matter of modern terrestrial origin.The recurring¹⁵N depletion in the marine-derived Cretaceous sequences prove that the nitrogen they contain is the end result of an episodic and atypical biogeochemistry. Existing isotopic and other data indicate that the low¹⁵N relative abundance is the consequence of pelagic rather than post-depositional processes. Reduced ocean circulation, increased denitrification, and, hence, reduced euphotic zone nitrate availability may have led to Cretaceous phytoplankton assemblages that were periodically dominated by N₂-fixing blue-green algae, a possible source of this sediment¹⁵N-depletion. Lack of parallel isotopic shifts in Cretaceous terrestrially-derived nitrogen (Site 603) argues that the above change in nitrogen cycling during this period did not extend beyond the marine environment.