Managing wicked environmental problems as complex social-ecological systems: the promise of adaptive governance

Abstract

Lessons learned from the failure of rational-comprehensive planning approaches to the management of water and other natural resources have led to a rethinking of the nature of resource management problems. The concept of wicked problems is increasingly used to describe problems that lack consensus in terms of their definition and solutions. In line with the ongoing search for appropriate conceptual frameworks and institutions for managing wicked problems, this chapter argues for a reconceptualization of wicked problems as complex social-ecological systems. Such a reconceptualization calls for a resilience-based approach to managing wicked problems through adaptive governance institutions. Adaptive governance provides a multi-level institutional framework for managing the uncertainties and conflicts that characterize wicked environmental problems. This argument is illustrated using the case of the Cache River watershed in southern Illinois, USA.