Synopsis
In 2006, Resilience Thinking addressed an essential question: As the natural systems that sustain us are subjected to shock after shock, how much can they take and still deliver the services we need from them? This idea caught the attention of both the scientific community and the general public.
In Resilience Practice, authors Brian Walker and David Salt take the notion of resilience one step further, applying resilience thinking to real-world situations and exploring how systems can be managed to promote and sustain resilience.
The book begins with an overview and introduction to resilience thinking and then takes the reader through the process of describing systems, assessing their resilience, and intervening as appropriate. Following each chapter is a case study of a different type of social-ecological system and how resilience makes a difference to that system in practice. The final chapters explore resilience in other arenas, including on a global scale.
Resilience Practice will help people with an interest in the “coping capacity” of systems—from farms and catchments to regions and nations—to better understand how resilience thinking can be put into practice. It offers an easy-to-read but scientifically robust guide through the real-world application of the concept of resilience and is a must read for anyone concerned with the management of systems at any scale.
About the Authors
Brian Walker has been one of the leading proponents of resilience theory and practice in the past two decades. He is currently an honorary fellow at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australian National University visiting professor, and a fellow in the International Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics in Sweden. Walker was chief of Australia's CSIRO Wildlife and Ecology (1985–1999), chaired the Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems Project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (1990–1997), and was director of the international Resilience Alliance (2000–2010). He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. He has a long list of scientific publications and has served on the editorial boards of five international journals. With David Salt, Walker coauthored Resilience Thinking (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2006) and Resilience Practice (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2012).
David Salt has been writing about science, scientists, and the environment for much of the last three decades. He created and then produced The Helix (Australia’s best-loved science magazine for young people) for more than a decade, served as communications manager for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Division of Wildlife and Ecology, and was the inaugural editor of an Australian version of the popular science magazine Newton. More recently, Salt has written and edited books on farm forestry and agri-environment policy. He currently edits two research magazines, Decision Point and Science for Saving Species, and is based in Canberra at the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions at the Australian National University. With Brian Walker, Salt coauthored Resilience Thinking (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2006) and Resilience Practice (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2012).
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