Abstract
Accelerating climate change and the possibility of triggering tipping points on Earth has led to increased calls for transformation (deliberately shifting to a new regime in response to climate change) of coupled systems of humans and nature (e.g., cities). In this paper, we discuss the underpinnings and framing of transformation for social-ecological systems. We illuminate this perspective by discussing opportunities and challenges for transformation with examples from cities (urban social-ecological systems) around the world. Our perspective is important for policy, as governments around the world have embraced linear responses to climate change as the preferred approaches for governance (e.g., water, coastal zones) in a world that will require transformations at multiple social-ecological scales in the post-Holocene future.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-21 |
| Journal | Advances in Ecological Research |
| Volume | 72 |
| Early online date | 26 Feb 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2025
Funding
The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or the policies of the U.S. government. No data in this study was provided by U.S. EPA therefore the study is not subject to U.S. EPA quality system requirements. This manuscript was improved with helpful input from Dr. Sarah Clement (Australian National University), Dr. Murray Scown (Lund University) and Dr. Bill Shuster (Wayne State University). We would also like to thank Abbey Snyder (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) for assistance with the figures and tables.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| University of Nebraska-Lincoln | |
| Lunds Universitet | |
| U.S. government | |
| Wayne State University | |
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
Keywords
- Adaptation
- Cities
- Governance
- Green
- Infrastructure
- Policy
- Scale
- Social-ecological systems
- Transformation
- Urban