Views on Tipping Points, Resilience, and Long-Term Water - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Views on Tipping Points, Resilience, and Long-Term Water Availability: Ecosy systems

Mark Stone, PhD, PE, DWRE Director, UNM Resilience Institute Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil, Construction & Environmental Engineering

Social-ecological systems are complex, integrated systems in which humans are recognized as part of nature.

(Berkes & Folke 1998) Ecological Sub-Systems Biodiversity Water Land Etc. Social Sub-Systems People Economy Infrastructure Etc. Organizations Use and Management of Natural Resources Delivery of Ecosystem Goods and Services External Drivers External Drivers

Internal Adaptations

“Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize so as to retain essentially the same function, structure, and feedbacks— to have the same identity.” Walker and Salt, 2010

Specified resilience is the resilience of some specified part of the system to a specified shock— a particular kind of disturbance (wildfire, terrorist attack, flooding, etc.) General resilience is the capacity of a system that allows it to absorb disturbances of all kinds, including novel, unforeseen ones, so that all parts of the system keep functioning as they have in the past.

There are limits to how much a self-organizing system can be changed and still recover. Beyond those limits it functions differently because some critical feedback process has changed. These limits are known as

thresholds.

Low Resilience High Resilience

Resilience practice is very much about thresholds— understanding them, determining where they might lie and what determines this, appreciating how you might deal with them, and having the capacity to be able to deal with them.

The Rio Chama Watershed

Streamflow upstream of El Vado Reservoir Streamflow downstream

• f El Vado Reservoir
• Lower spring peaks
• Higher variation in summer flows
• Higher summer and fall flows
• Higher variations in winter flows

Summary of Changes:

The downstream system has adjusted to the new boundary condition and developed a novel ecosystem. Downsized channel Stabilized banks Upland vegetation encroachment Introduced fishery (brown trout)

Novel ecosystems are human-built, modified, or engineered systems. They exist in places that have been altered in structure and function by human agency.

The Rio Chama Flows Project aims to inform water operations in order to achieve environmental improvements in the downstream reach without jeopardizing downstream water users.

Another System to Consider: Middle Rio Grande Bosque

Our headwater systems

• Resilience thinking requires a holistic view of socio-

ecological systems

• Managing for resilient systems requires an

understanding of thresholds

• Many/most/(all) of our ecosystems in the

southwest are in a novel phase

• Resilience practice provides a useful context for

viewing and managing our novel systems

Closing Thoughts