Orientations to navigate the complexity of freshwater resilience in social-ecological systems
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Resilience is a widely applied and diversely interpreted concept in freshwater science with applications that span disciplines, analytical frameworks, scales of analysis, and system delineations. This diversity leads to an equally rich variety of resilience insights which are difficult to compare, aggregate, synthesize, and apply in decision-relevant contexts. Here, we seek to support greater critical and reflexive awareness of how freshwater resilience insights are generated by proposing three social-ecological orientations: 1) freshwater resilience as a shared physical and social reality; 2) the necessity of multiple knowledge production systems; 3) the emergence of freshwater resilience through open systems with cross-scale dynamics. We demonstrate the benefit of holding these orientations through four case studies spanning the almond debate of California's Central Valley, the Sahelian paradox, the seasonal flood pulse in the Mekong River Basin, and hydropower in the Amazon Basin. We envision that these orientations can serve as a shared foundation for holistic freshwater resilience research and better understanding of processes that generate resilience insights. To advance beyond perspectives of freshwater resilience that capture only one or few dimensions, we argue that freshwater resilience science should embrace a sustained commitment to inclusion of multiple perspectives, provision of context-rich descriptions of resilience processes, and transparency in documenting how resilience is conceptualised in the research that produces claims about it.
DOI: 10.31223/x5280s
Authors: Xander Huggins, Vili Virkki, Elisabeth Krueger, Chelsea Kaandorp, Simon Fahrländer, Bhattaraphop Viriyaroj, Heindriken Dahlmann, Romi Lotcheris, Elina Paavonen, Petr Vesnovskii, David Lindao, Ronit Bohra, Lauren Seaby Andersen, Ingo Fetzer, Dieter Gerten, Fernando Jaramillo, Matti Kummu, Vajira Lasantha, Miina Porkka, Juan Rocha, Lan Wang-Erlandsson
Institutions: University of British Columbia, University of Glasgow, University of Eastern Finland, University of Amsterdam, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, University of Potsdam, Leibniz Association, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Aalto University, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Princeton University, High Meadows Environmental Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Understanding and managing Sweden’s exposure to water resilience risks in the Anthropocene, G2259989436, Understanding and securing the resilience of forest-based climate change mitigation, G5192371724, Journal Moderna Språk: funding for editor and editorial secretary, G5781592070, Leap in Swedish freshwater monitoring for water supply risk mitigation, The enteric nervous system connectome in health and disease, Capturing and measuring multiple and systemic environmental impacts of companies and investments: a new tool that accounts for climate, water and biodiversity and their interactions, Optimal hydrological restoration of Swedish wetlands with deep learning and hydrogeodesy, G8522362529
OpenAlex ID: W7216118712