Approaches to Enhance Integration and Monitoring for Social-Ecological Systems

Adela Itzkin (), Jai Kumar Clifford-Holmes, Mary Scholes and Kaera Coetzer
Additional contact information
Adela Itzkin: School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES), University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
Jai Kumar Clifford-Holmes: Institute for Water Research (IWR), Rhodes University, Makhanda 6140, South Africa
Mary Scholes: School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES), University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
Kaera Coetzer: Global Change Institute, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-24

Abstract: Integration and monitoring are pressing conceptual and methodological challenges in social-ecological systems (SES) research. This paper follows a social learning process, called participatory self-observation, piloted by a group of action-researchers to improve SES integration and monitoring, using the Tsitsa River Catchment in South Africa as a case study. The participatory self-observation process reflected on lessons to enhance integration and integrated monitoring of biophysical, social, and social-ecological data in SES projects; for adaptive planning and management. Three focal points emerged for improving the challenges of SES integration: the need for participatory people-based processes, the importance of applied praxis tasks to catalyze meaningful integration, and the need for transdisciplinary teams to value non-biophysical research. Five focal areas emerged as major challenges for SES monitoring: the integration of qualitative and quantitative data, data overload, the scale of SES monitoring, the need to center SES monitoring around learning, and good working relationships to enable data flow. Recommendations to further develop integrated monitoring and management of SESs include (i) using people-based approaches that focus on applied work which includes rigorous collection of quantitative, biophysical data, (ii) identifying essential data needs through an essential variable approach, and (iii) combining quantitative monitoring with participatory people-based processes.

Keywords: social-ecological systems integration; integrated monitoring; participatory self-observation; social learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/10/1848/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/10/1848/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:10:p:1848-:d:947883

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().