Policy Forum: Introduction: Resilience and sustainability

摘要

One of the most interesting and potentially useful outcomes of recent collaboration between natural and social scientists concerned with the sustainability of jointly determined ecological-economic systems is the application of the ecological concept of resilience. In its broadest sense, resilience is a measure of the ability of a system to withstand stresses and shocks-its ability to persist in an uncertain world. For many policy- makers, however, the concern that desirable states or processes may not be 'sustainable' is balanced by the concern that individuals and societies may get 'locked-in' to undesirable states or processes.