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3.8 Resilience – Ability to Mitigate and Adapt to Change
Resilience comes from having the capacity to mitigate and diminish impacts or to adapt to change. It
signifies the capacity of a system to absorb disturbances and surprises, and it can mean the ability to
reorganise, so as to retain the same essential function, structure and identity (Smit, 2003). According
to the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risk of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance
Climate Change Adaptation (SREX), 2012, resilience is ‘the ability of a system and its component
parts to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or recover from the effects of a hazardous event in a timely
and efficient manner, including through ensuring the preservation, restoration, or improvement of its
essential basic structures and functions’ (IPCC, 2012).
However, ecosystems change gradually over long periods of time in response to changes in average
climatic conditions (Iverson, Schwartz, & Prasad, 2004). Seasonal shifts and extreme conditions due
to changes in the climate system, will exert the greatest impacts, including droughts, frosts, and winter
thaws that directly kill organisms or change their competitive balance, threatening their ability to
adapt with changes. Further, disturbances associated with these extreme conditions (floods, wildfires,
and hurricanes) strongly influence the dynamics of ecosystems over decades to centuries (Peters et al.,
2011). When the resilience of an ecosystem or a socio-ecological system (defined as the capacity of a
system to absorb disturbance and reorganize so as to retain essential function, structure, identity) and
feedbacks is exceeded, transformation of the system to a new state is likely (Walker, Holding,
Carpenter, & Kinzig, 2004). This is when the system regenerates or adapts to a new state.
Resilience is an inherent quality of all healthy living systems. It is a state of dynamic equilibrium
that enables systems to grow and evolve while keeping their coherence (Berry, 2000). This process of
achieving a dynamic equilibrium is indeed fundamental to a state of wholeness, supporting The Whole
[1]. This is true of ecological systems that regenerate. The features of ecological systems that make
them distinct (diversity, memory, cross-scale interactions, sensitivity to environmental variability, and
regeneration) are not just a passive effect of ecological interactions, but an important determinant of a
system’s persistence and adaptability in face of environmental change (Madhur, 2010). Regenerative
systems in the natural environment can be considered to be resilient, and can be used to reduce the
causes of climate change through increasing biomass and thus potentially increasing the storage or
sequestration of carbon. This means the impacts of climate change can potentially be reduced, particularly over the long term. Increasing the health of ecosystems also increases the resilience of ecosystems, and potentially built environments if natural systems are integrated into these environments as an
adaptation response to climate change (Gitay, Saurez, Watson, & Jon Dok, 2002; Chapin et al., 2000).
3.9 Conclusion Statement
The challenge of a changing environment due to climate change requires humans and nature to achieve
resilience, meaning adaptive capacity to be able to evolve with a fast-changing environment. However,
what is evident is that most approaches in the literature address the issue of human systems adaptation, whih includes consideration of social and economic vulnerability, and the services that ecological systems provide to the survival of humans as part of the adaptation discourse. Unfortunately,
human adaptation considerations are self-centred, and as indicated, adaptation or mitigation considerations are framed and structured for human benefit only.
Therefore:
A holistic integrated adaptation discourse, where ecosystems and human systems are in equilibrium, needs to be implemented. This new way of responding to the changing environment at its core
assumes that humans and nature are equal, and both should go through a process of co-adaptation to
achieve ongoing resilience.
3.9 Conclusion Statement
3.8 Resilience – Ability to Mitigate and Adapt to Change
Resilience comes from having the capacity to mitigate and diminish impacts or to adapt to change. It
signifies the capacity of a system to absorb disturbances and surprises, and it can mean the ability to
reorganise, so as to retain the same essential function, structure and identity (Smit, 2003). According
to the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risk of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance
Climate Change Adaptation (SREX), 2012, resilience is ‘the ability of a system and its component
parts to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or recover from the effects of a hazardous event in a timely
and efficient manner, including through ensuring the preservation, restoration, or improvement of its
essential basic structures and functions’ (IPCC, 2012).
However, ecosystems change gradually over long periods of time in response to changes in average
climatic conditions (Iverson, Schwartz, & Prasad, 2004). Seasonal shifts and extreme conditions due
to changes in the climate system, will exert the greatest impacts, including droughts, frosts, and winter
thaws that directly kill organisms or change their competitive balance, threatening their ability to
adapt with changes. Further, disturbances associated with these extreme conditions (floods, wildfires,
and hurricanes) strongly influence the dynamics of ecosystems over decades to centuries (Peters et al.,
2011). When the resilience of an ecosystem or a socio-ecological system (defined as the capacity of a
system to absorb disturbance and reorganize so as to retain essential function, structure, identity) and
feedbacks is exceeded, transformation of the system to a new state is likely (Walker, Holding,
Carpenter, & Kinzig, 2004). This is when the system regenerates or adapts to a new state.
Resilience is an inherent quality of all healthy living systems. It is a state of dynamic equilibrium
that enables systems to grow and evolve while keeping their coherence (Berry, 2000). This process of
achieving a dynamic equilibrium is indeed fundamental to a state of wholeness, supporting The Whole
[1]. This is true of ecological systems that regenerate. The features of ecological systems that make
them distinct (diversity, memory, cross-scale interactions, sensitivity to environmental variability, and
regeneration) are not just a passive effect of ecological interactions, but an important determinant of a
system’s persistence and adaptability in face of environmental change (Madhur, 2010). Regenerative
systems in the natural environment can be considered to be resilient, and can be used to reduce the
causes of climate change through increasing biomass and thus potentially increasing the storage or
sequestration of carbon. This means the impacts of climate change can potentially be reduced, particularly over the long term. Increasing the health of ecosystems also increases the resilience of ecosystems, and potentially built environments if natural systems are integrated into these environments as an
adaptation response to climate change (Gitay, Saurez, Watson, & Jon Dok, 2002; Chapin et al., 2000).
3.9 Conclusion Statement
The challenge of a changing environment due to climate change requires humans and nature to achieve
resilience, meaning adaptive capacity to be able to evolve with a fast-changing environment. However,
what is evident is that most approaches in the literature address the issue of human systems adaptation, whih includes consideration of social and economic vulnerability, and the services that ecological systems provide to the survival of humans as part of the adaptation discourse. Unfortunately,
human adaptation considerations are self-centred, and as indicated, adaptation or mitigation considerations are framed and structured for human benefit only.
Therefore:
A holistic integrated adaptation discourse, where ecosystems and human systems are in equilibrium, needs to be implemented. This new way of responding to the changing environment at its core
assumes that humans and nature are equal, and both should go through a process of co-adaptation to
achieve ongoing resilience.
3.9 Conclusion Statement