Presentation of the Bronx River Classroom book for educators (authors: Runfola A-M., Weiss J.) in the Drew Gardens

Social-Ecological Systems

Social-ecological systems are systems where social and biophysical components are interacting. Examples of social-ecological systems include urban forests, the Bronx River, green roofs, and community gardens. This concept provides a useful framework for environmental restoration in cities because humans are viewed as an integral part of environmental systems. Instead of re-wilding or restoring pristine ecosystems, urban environmental stewards who use this framework build resilient ecosystems that provide environmental services for people and mitigate environmental problems.

Literature:

• Folke, C. (2006). Resilience: the emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses. Global environmental change, 16, 253-267.
• Janssen, M. A., & Ostrom, E. (2006). Governing social-ecological systems. In L. Tesfatsion & K. L. Judd (Eds.), Handbook of computational economics (Vol. 2, pp. 1465-1509). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: North-Holland.
• Liu, J., Dietz, T., Carpenter, S. R., Folke, C., Alberti, M., Redman, C. L., et al. (2007). Coupled human and natural systems. Ambio, 36(8), 639-649.
• The Resilience Alliance (2007). Assessing and managing resilience in social-ecological systems: a practitioners workbook. Version 1.0: Resilience Alliance.
• Walker, B., Holling, C. S., Carpenter, S. R., & Kinzig, A. (2004). Resilience, adaptability and transformability in social-ecological systems. Ecology and society, 9(2).