Resilience and Resource Management

Abstract

Resilience is an umbrella concept with many different shades of meaning. The use of the term has grown over the past several decades to the point that by now, many disciplines have their own definitions and metrics. In this paper, we aim to provide a context and focus for linkages of resilience to natural resources management. We consider differences and similarities in resilience as presented in several disciplines relevant to resource management. We present a conceptual framework that includes environmental drivers, management interventions, and system responses cast in terms of system resilience, as well as a process for decision making that allows learning about system resilience through experience and incorporation of that learning into management. We discuss the current state of operational management for resilience, and suggest ways to improve it. Finally, we describe the challenges in managing for resilience and offer some recommendations about the scientific information needs and scientific issues relevant to making resilience a more meaningful component of natural resources management.