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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fort Collins, Colorado » Center for Agricultural Resources Research » Rangeland Resources & Systems Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #372217
Research Project: Adaptive Grazing Management and Decision Support to Enhance Ecosystem Services in the Western Great Plains

Location: Rangeland Resources & Systems Research

Title: Where to from here? Unravelling wicked problems

Author
item WOODMANSEE, ROBERT - Colorado State University
item OJIMA, DENNIS - Colorado State University
item Kaplan, Nicole

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/22/2021
Publication Date: 2/26/2021
Citation: Woodmansee, R.G., Ojima, D.S., Kaplan, N.E. 2021. Where to from here? Unravelling wicked problems. In: Woodmansee, R.G., Moore, J.C., Ojima, D.S., Richards, L., editors. Natural Resource Management Reimagined: Using the Systems Ecology Paradigm. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 380-420.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Wicked problems are those that have multiple and interacting causes. Wicked problems have multiple driving forces or “drivers” that can interact to produce uncertain and unexpected environmental and societal challenges. They involve many poorly understood feedbacks within and among biological, physical, social, economic, and political subsystems. Their definitions are poorly articulated. Knowledge needed to address them is disbursed among many perspectives and disciplines if it exists at all. In Chapter 13, Where to from here? Unravelling Wicked Problems, the system ecology paradigm or ecosystem approach is presented as a methodology for integrating knowledge and resolving many real-world, complex problems related to sustainable natural resources and agriculture.