Spring Course: Regime Shifts, Resilience and Transformation in Urban Ecosystems

URBDP 498A / 598F ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING

Regime Shifts, Resilience, and Transformation in Urban Ecosystems

Marina Alberti
malberti@u.washington.edu
(206) 616-8667

DESCRIPTION

• This course focuses on the integration of principles of ecosystem dynamics and resilience into planning and decision-making. It is structured in 4 modules: 1) theories of environmental planning, 2) methods of environmental assessment, 3) scenarios and models of coupled human- natural systems, and 4) collaborative adaptive management and planning. Together these modules are used to frame and address critical transitions and resilience in urban ecosystems in the Puget Sound region. The course builds on complex systems theory and its application to coupled human-ecological systems. Students learn techniques for developing scenarios, building models, assessing resilience and devising management strategies. The course builds on a broad range of approaches including strategic environmental assessment, place-based, life cycle, and risk assessment, and adaptive collaborative planning.

OBJECTIVES

• Explore theories and approaches of coupled human natural systems and resilience • Learn concepts and principles of complexity theory and apply them to address emerging environmental issues • Understand the implications of these concepts and principles for environmental planning and management • Learn how scenario planning methods help to integrate irreducible uncertainty into decision making • Learn how to create an adaptive management portfolio that is effective and credible in the short and long term.

PRACTICUM

• The practicum will focus on Regime Shifts, Resilience, and Transformation in Urban Ecosystems. We will explore regime shifts that are likely to occur in urban ecosystems and examine the drivers, mechanisms, and functions that regulate system dynamic and their impact on human and ecological wellbeing. Building on case studies of hydrological and ecological regime shifts in urbanizing regions, we will develop hypotheses about what system characteristics and qualities make cities more resilient to change. We will then select case examples in the Puget Sound region and test these hypotheses by exploring system adaptive capacities under alternative future scenarios. The practicum will reflect and develop principles to translate resilience science into strategies for urbanizing regions.

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