Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions

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dc.contributor.authorCrabtree, Stefani A.
dc.contributor.authorKahn, Jennifer G.
dc.contributor.authorJackson, Rowan
dc.contributor.authorWood, Spencer A.
dc.contributor.authorMcKechnie, Iain
dc.contributor.authorVerhagen, Philip
dc.contributor.authorEarnshaw, Jacob
dc.contributor.authorKirch, Patrick V.
dc.contributor.authorDunne, Jennifer A.
dc.contributor.authorDugmore, Andrew J
dc.date.accessioned2023-11-06T17:28:00Z
dc.date.available2023-11-06T17:28:00Z
dc.date.copyright2023en_US
dc.date.issued2023
dc.description.abstractAnalyzing the spatial and temporal properties of information flow with a multi-century perspective could illuminate the sustainability of human resource-use strategies. This paper uses historical and archaeological datasets to assess how spatial, temporal, cognitive, and cultural limitations impact the generation and flow of information about ecosystems within past societies, and thus lead to tradeoffs in sustainable practices. While it is well understood that conflicting priorities can inhibit successful outcomes, case studies from Eastern Polynesia, the North Atlantic, and the American Southwest suggest that imperfect information can also be a major impediment to sustainability. We formally develop a conceptual model of Environmental Information Flow and Perception (EnIFPe) to examine the scale of information flow to a society and the quality of the information needed to promote sustainable coupled natural-human systems. In our case studies, we assess key aspects of information flow by focusing on food web relationships and nutrient flows in socio-ecological systems, as well as the life cycles, population dynamics, and seasonal rhythms of organisms, the patterns and timing of species’ migration, and the trajectories of human-induced environmental change. We argue that the spatial and temporal dimensions of human environments shape society’s ability to wield information, while acknowledging that varied cultural factors also focus a society’s ability to act on such information. Our analyses demonstrate the analytical importance of completed experiments from the past, and their utility for contemporary debates concerning managing imperfect information and addressing conflicting priorities in modern environmental management and resource use.en_US
dc.description.reviewstatusRevieweden_US
dc.description.scholarlevelFacultyen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis paper was supported by a grant from the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis (CfAS), and was developed with support from the Santa Fe Institute, the Quadra Centre for Coastal Dialogue and the Tula Foundation. Portions of this project were funded by a National Science Foundation Coupled Natural Human Systems grant (CNH-1313830) awarded to Dunne, Kahn and Kirch.en_US
dc.identifier.citationCrabtree, S. A., Kahn, J. G., Jackson, R., Wood, S. A., McKechnie, I., Verhagen, P., Earnshaw, J., Kirch, P. V., Dunne, J. A., & Dugmore, A. J. (2023). Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions. Global Environmental Change, 78, 102597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102597en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102597
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/15583
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherGlobal Environmental Changeen_US
dc.subjectSustainable resource management
dc.subjectHuman impacts
dc.subjectArchaeology
dc.subjectTraditional ecological knowledge
dc.subjectEcology
dc.subject.departmentDepartment of Anthropology
dc.titleWhy are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactionsen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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