Can Resilience Thinking Be Integrated into the Strategic Environmental Assessment Process?

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Ecology
• Sustainability Science

Background:

• Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is intended as a proactive tool for evaluating development sustainability in plans, policies, and programs.
• Global environmental change necessitates adaptive assessment frameworks.
• Social-ecological systems (SES) science offers insights into complex, interconnected environmental and social dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the integration of resilience thinking from SES science into SEA practice.
• To identify barriers and opportunities for applying SES resilience concepts to SEA.
• To propose a pathway for enhancing SEA through resilience assessment.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis and synthesis of resilience thinking and SEA principles.
• Discussion of cognitive and social barriers to integrating complex systems science into environmental assessment.
• Proposal of an action research approach for adaptive implementation.

Main Results:

• Resilience thinking has significant potential to improve SEA for assessing development sustainability.
• Current application of SES resilience ideas in SEA is limited.
• Cognitive and social biases are primary barriers to improved SEA practice and SES resilience science integration.

Conclusions:

• Resilience thinking can be integrated into SEA, but requires leadership to foster a social movement for change.
• Overcoming barriers related to complexity, uncertainty, and self-organization is crucial.
• An action research approach, emphasizing education and learning-by-doing, can facilitate the adoption of resilience assessment in SEA.