Social-ecological network analysis of scale mismatches: an application to estuary watershed restoration
Location
USU Eccles Conference Center
Event Website
http://water.usu.edu
Start Date
4-5-2016 11:45 AM
End Date
4-5-2016 12:00 PM
Description
Incongruences between governance boundaries and the natural resource system they are meant to govern is a fundamental sustainability challenge, often causing failed or inefficient resource management. While diagnosing such incongruences, called scale mismatches, can improve natural resource governance (NRG), few spatially explicit, rigorous approaches exist. We develop and apply a novel, spatially explicit social-ecological network analysis (SENA) framework to map and analyze scale mismatch. We analyze structural patterns among local and regional organizations, defined by their geographic extent, to assess scale mismatch bridging. We then combine our SENA with existing ecological data to identify social-ecological hot-spots (i.e., areas with both social and ecological problems) and low hanging fruit (i.e., areas with ecological problems and social processes conducive to NRG success). We demonstrate our approach by focusing on large-scale estuary restoration in Puget Sound, USA. Analysis shows potentially problematic areas in nearshore environments, where collaboration networks measured by density (percentage of possible network connections) and perceived productivity are weakest. Many areas also have high centralization (a few nodes hold the network together) increasing the network cohesion dependence on key organizations. We further find that higher centralization is related with lower productivity, and that lower productivity is also found at low and high levels of network density. Our analysis aids policy makers by identifying areas where governance capacity needs strengthening and considers these in tandem with ecological conditions. Our work advances SENA by developing a novel, multi-level governance approach to assess scale mismatch.
Social-ecological network analysis of scale mismatches: an application to estuary watershed restoration
USU Eccles Conference Center
Incongruences between governance boundaries and the natural resource system they are meant to govern is a fundamental sustainability challenge, often causing failed or inefficient resource management. While diagnosing such incongruences, called scale mismatches, can improve natural resource governance (NRG), few spatially explicit, rigorous approaches exist. We develop and apply a novel, spatially explicit social-ecological network analysis (SENA) framework to map and analyze scale mismatch. We analyze structural patterns among local and regional organizations, defined by their geographic extent, to assess scale mismatch bridging. We then combine our SENA with existing ecological data to identify social-ecological hot-spots (i.e., areas with both social and ecological problems) and low hanging fruit (i.e., areas with ecological problems and social processes conducive to NRG success). We demonstrate our approach by focusing on large-scale estuary restoration in Puget Sound, USA. Analysis shows potentially problematic areas in nearshore environments, where collaboration networks measured by density (percentage of possible network connections) and perceived productivity are weakest. Many areas also have high centralization (a few nodes hold the network together) increasing the network cohesion dependence on key organizations. We further find that higher centralization is related with lower productivity, and that lower productivity is also found at low and high levels of network density. Our analysis aids policy makers by identifying areas where governance capacity needs strengthening and considers these in tandem with ecological conditions. Our work advances SENA by developing a novel, multi-level governance approach to assess scale mismatch.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2016/2016Abstracts/5
Comments
An oral presentation by Jacopo Baggio, who is with Utah State University, Environment and Society