Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions
Analyzing the spatial and temporal properties of information flow with a multi-century perspective could illuminate the sustainability of human resource-use strategies. This paper uses historical and archaeological datasets to assess how spatial, temporal, cognitive, and cultural limitations impact...
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Global Environmental Change
2023
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/15210 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102597 |
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ftuvicpubl:oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/15210 2023-07-30T04:05:36+02:00 Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions Crabtree, Stefani A. Kahn, Jennifer G. Jackson, Rowan Wood, Spencer A. McKechnie, Iain Verhagen, Philip Earnshaw, Jacob K. Kirch, Patrick V. Dunne, Jennifer A. Dugmore, Andrew 2023 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1828/15210 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102597 en eng Global Environmental Change Crabtree, S.A., Kahn, J.G., Jackson, R., Wood, S.A., McKechnie, I., Verhagen, P., Earnshaw, J.K., Kirch, P.V., Dunne, J.A., Dugmore, A. (2023). Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions. Global Environmental Change 78(1):102597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102597 http://hdl.handle.net/1828/15210 Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Canada http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ca/ Sustainable resource management Human impacts Archaeology Traditional ecological knowledge Ecology Article 2023 ftuvicpubl https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102597 2023-07-11T23:46:22Z Analyzing the spatial and temporal properties of information flow with a multi-century perspective could illuminate the sustainability of human resource-use strategies. This paper uses historical and archaeological datasets to assess how spatial, temporal, cognitive, and cultural limitations impact the generation and flow of information about ecosystems within past societies, and thus lead to tradeoffs in sustainable practices. While it is well understood that conflicting priorities can inhibit successful outcomes, case studies from Eastern Polynesia, the North Atlantic, and the American Southwest suggest that imperfect information can also be a major impediment to sustainability. We formally develop a conceptual model of Environmental Information Flow and Perception (EnIFPe) to examine the scale of information flow to a society and the quality of the information needed to promote sustainable coupled natural-human systems. In our case studies, we assess key aspects of information flow by focusing on food web relationships and nutrient flows in socio-ecological systems, as well as the life cycles, population dynamics, and seasonal rhythms of organisms, the patterns and timing of species’ migration, and the trajectories of human-induced environmental change. We argue that the spatial and temporal dimensions of human environments shape society’s ability to wield information, while acknowledging that varied cultural factors also focus a society’s ability to act on such information. Our analyses demonstrate the analytical importance of completed experiments from the past, and their utility for contemporary debates concerning managing imperfect information and addressing conflicting priorities in modern environmental management and resource use. This paper was supported by a grant from the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis (CfAS), and was developed with support from the Santa Fe Institute, the Quadra Centre for Coastal Dialogue and the Tula Foundation. Portions of this project were funded by a National Science ... Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic University of Victoria (Canada): UVicDSpace Tula ENVELOPE(-65.650,-65.650,-65.517,-65.517) Global Environmental Change 78 102597 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Victoria (Canada): UVicDSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftuvicpubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Sustainable resource management Human impacts Archaeology Traditional ecological knowledge Ecology |
spellingShingle |
Sustainable resource management Human impacts Archaeology Traditional ecological knowledge Ecology Crabtree, Stefani A. Kahn, Jennifer G. Jackson, Rowan Wood, Spencer A. McKechnie, Iain Verhagen, Philip Earnshaw, Jacob K. Kirch, Patrick V. Dunne, Jennifer A. Dugmore, Andrew Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions |
topic_facet |
Sustainable resource management Human impacts Archaeology Traditional ecological knowledge Ecology |
description |
Analyzing the spatial and temporal properties of information flow with a multi-century perspective could illuminate the sustainability of human resource-use strategies. This paper uses historical and archaeological datasets to assess how spatial, temporal, cognitive, and cultural limitations impact the generation and flow of information about ecosystems within past societies, and thus lead to tradeoffs in sustainable practices. While it is well understood that conflicting priorities can inhibit successful outcomes, case studies from Eastern Polynesia, the North Atlantic, and the American Southwest suggest that imperfect information can also be a major impediment to sustainability. We formally develop a conceptual model of Environmental Information Flow and Perception (EnIFPe) to examine the scale of information flow to a society and the quality of the information needed to promote sustainable coupled natural-human systems. In our case studies, we assess key aspects of information flow by focusing on food web relationships and nutrient flows in socio-ecological systems, as well as the life cycles, population dynamics, and seasonal rhythms of organisms, the patterns and timing of species’ migration, and the trajectories of human-induced environmental change. We argue that the spatial and temporal dimensions of human environments shape society’s ability to wield information, while acknowledging that varied cultural factors also focus a society’s ability to act on such information. Our analyses demonstrate the analytical importance of completed experiments from the past, and their utility for contemporary debates concerning managing imperfect information and addressing conflicting priorities in modern environmental management and resource use. This paper was supported by a grant from the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis (CfAS), and was developed with support from the Santa Fe Institute, the Quadra Centre for Coastal Dialogue and the Tula Foundation. Portions of this project were funded by a National Science ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Crabtree, Stefani A. Kahn, Jennifer G. Jackson, Rowan Wood, Spencer A. McKechnie, Iain Verhagen, Philip Earnshaw, Jacob K. Kirch, Patrick V. Dunne, Jennifer A. Dugmore, Andrew |
author_facet |
Crabtree, Stefani A. Kahn, Jennifer G. Jackson, Rowan Wood, Spencer A. McKechnie, Iain Verhagen, Philip Earnshaw, Jacob K. Kirch, Patrick V. Dunne, Jennifer A. Dugmore, Andrew |
author_sort |
Crabtree, Stefani A. |
title |
Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions |
title_short |
Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions |
title_full |
Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions |
title_fullStr |
Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions |
title_full_unstemmed |
Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions |
title_sort |
why are sustainable practices often elusive? the role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions |
publisher |
Global Environmental Change |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1828/15210 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102597 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-65.650,-65.650,-65.517,-65.517) |
geographic |
Tula |
geographic_facet |
Tula |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
Crabtree, S.A., Kahn, J.G., Jackson, R., Wood, S.A., McKechnie, I., Verhagen, P., Earnshaw, J.K., Kirch, P.V., Dunne, J.A., Dugmore, A. (2023). Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions. Global Environmental Change 78(1):102597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102597 http://hdl.handle.net/1828/15210 |
op_rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Canada http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ca/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102597 |
container_title |
Global Environmental Change |
container_volume |
78 |
container_start_page |
102597 |
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1772817634674343936 |