MODULE 4
MODULE 4
In this module, you'll explore the concept of resilience. You'll also learn about several systems archetypes—patterns that occur in many different systems.
Here you'll examine factors that affect a coastal community's resilience to flooding, and consider how a systems approach can illuminate the effects of practices and policies aimed at responding to floods.
The ecologists Brian Walker and David Salt define resilience as "the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize so as to retain essentially the same function, structure, and feedbacks."1
Climate change is challenging the resilience of many systems, including those of communities near the ocean. In these areas, floods impose an increasing danger to people and infrastructure.
Imagine that you live in Hazard Beach, a hypothetical seaside community. Long ago, saltmarshes, seagrasses, and other natural buffers protected the land against the waves. Those buffers were removed to increase access to the coast. Most of the modern development along the coast was built on the reclaimed land that will sink over time and contribute to the vulnerability of structures built on them.
In recent years, storms have caused flooding in the basements and ground floors of houses near the water. People in your community have adapted in several ways:
But are any of these activities actually making the community more resilient?
Watch the video to learn how to map the situation, as well as the responses to increasing flooding.
Psychologist Judith Rodin defines resilience as "the capacity of any entity—an individual, a community, an organization, or a natural system—to prepare for disruptions, to recover from shocks and stresses, and to adapt and grow from a disruptive experience."2
To move beyond a definition, you must identify the elements of resilience in a system. Here's a checklist of the major characteristics of resilient systems (developed by Professor Rodin):
| Characteristic | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Failing safely | Parts of the system can fail without the system ceasing to function or collapsing. |
| Diverse and redundant sources of capacity | If some sources of the system's capacity fail, others are still available. |
| Awareness of the system's vulnerabilities | Decision makers and other stakeholders are aware of the system's vulnerabilities. |
| Readiness to respond to crisis | Decision makers are prepared to respond to disruption—with respect both to what responses are needed and who is responsible for leading the response. |
| Social cohesion | "The glue that bonds people together" consists of commitment, caring, shared values, engagement, and sense of identity that reinforces other elements of a resilient social system. |
| Self-regulation through feedback loops | The system is self-regulated through feedback loops that correct for disruptions within the system. |
| Adaptiveness | The system's elements can be reconfigured in the face of disruption. |
Key takeaway: A resilient system may function differently after a disruption, but it still functions.
Take a few minutes to reflect on the resilience checklist, then consider how the characteristics apply (or don't apply) to Hazard Beach.
All the measures we've explored so far have been initiated by the residents. But there are other actors with stakes in the system's resilience and who may exert leverage.
Watch the video to consider the situation from the county commissioners' perspective, and learn how policymakers could improve Hazard Beach's resilience.
The ecologist C.S. Holling distinguishes resilience from stability:
The actions of Hazard Beach residents provide stability in the face of repeated small floods. But the very success of their quick fixes has the unintended consequence of lessening their awareness of the major floods that are inevitable in the coming decades and their ability to develop resilience to them.
In contrast, some responses to natural disasters—ranging from earthquakes to wildfires and flooding—have created resilience to future disasters. For example, earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay Area have led to changes in structures and infrastructures likely to reduce the damage caused by "the big one."
Select each systems archetype below to review a systems map and an example of the common recurring pattern.
The archetypes mentioned so far focus on individual actors. There are several others that involve multiple actors. We mention two major ones here:
In this module, you examined two very different topics: the resilience of systems and systems archetypes—patterns that can occur in many different systems. We explored resilience mainly by looking at ways that responses to a problem can detract from a system's resilience. This created an opportunity to review some of the most common systems archetypes, which often (though not inevitably) compromise the hoped-for benefits of systems. The focus on system pathologies may help you design systems that avoid them.