Developing an integrated framework to model resilience of the coupled human/natural environment in tropical coastal systems

Background/Question/Methods

Conditions in coastal zones worldwide are deteriorating rapidly, barraged by multiple stressors. Lack of integration across human and natural sciences has limited understanding and the ability to solve resilience-related problems, despite the importance of these systems in supporting human populations and biodiversity. Here, we describe our efforts to explore the principal dynamics that govern coastal systems with an international team of researchers, local managers and key stakeholders using geospatial data visualization and knowledge discovery.

Results/Conclusions

Focusing on two coastal study sites (Gulf coast of Thailand, Hervey Bay, Australia), we refine an existing conceptual framework and generate testable hypotheses of the critical linkages among ecological, biophysical, social, governmental, economic drivers of coastal system resilience.  Guided by that framework, we use spatially-explicit layers to integrate available social and natural science data (e.g. remotely sensed images, landscape complexity, governance structure and market access) to evaluate these linked-process hypotheses. This transdisciplinary, comparative approach introduces new technological applications to advance coastal resilience research and guide critically-needed resource management.