Adaptive management applied to water use planning

Adaptive management (AM) techniques are amongst the principle tools proposed by environmental decision makers to provide flexible and responsive management approaches over time. The concept, developed by ecologists over the past 25 years, incorporates an explicitly experimental approach to learning as a way to reduce uncertainty. Rather than downplaying uncertainty and using existing knowledge to implement a single “best” plan for ecological management, AM approaches explicitly recognise the existence of uncertainty and propose that a range of management alternatives be tested and refined over time based on a careful comparison of the results. The AM concept has been successfully applied in only a small number of cases. Here Gregory et al present an application of the AM concept to water use planning in British Columbia. The paper explains the concept of AM and presents a number of considerations that should be addressed by resource managers developing and evaluating an AM plan.

(Source: Gregory, R., Failing, L. and Higgins, P., 2006. Adaptive management and environmental decision making: a case study application to water use planning. Ecological Economics 58: 434-447)