Is there an overarching resilient model which is based in sustainable theory? There is a resilience thesis on a "theory of sustainability" by the field of design theory or design philosophy, but I am looking for more sources on the topic.
Dear Rolando, as far as I know the answer is no. In both research fields literature and theory are still quite young and not consolidated. The fields are not clearly separated. So you can pick literature from both and argue why/how they fit together. Do a good job and we all will benefit from it. :-)
I would argue that resilience is part of sustainability science. The problem sustainability face when you want to implement it are more or less the same with a resilience approach. In a nut shell: In sus. science you have to judge how to balance the three pillars. In res. science you have to judge what system functions are supposed to be "stable" and what functions (or inner structures) should be adaptive.
Dear Rolando,
I will take advantage of the final part of the answer of my fore speaker.
I think that the main difference is exactly the notion of stable / adaptive: While sustainability is about finding a close to optimal situation of equilibrium of apparently mutual exclusive concepts (pillars), resilience - as far as my understanding goes - has the necessity to establish at least a theoretical state of stability, of force and counterforce or still of action and reaction.
From my point of view, again agreeing with the first answer, both fields still lack clear definitions and as far as I can see sustainability will always be either to general to define clearly or to complex do define in detail.
Best regards,
Lennart B. P.
Indeed a good issue to be discussed. Moreover, such overarching may facilitate for the long term goal of addressing the climate change.
The resilient model may and may not be sustainable; however vice versa is true in longer perspective. Resiliency may be dealt by coping (in narrow sense); however, sustainability may also include the adaptation and much more. How the coping, adaptive capacity and other pillars are to be integrated may further aid to the concept. The dimension has to be narrowed down and may be followed similar to the path of IPCC Vulnerability concept.
Dear Manuel, Lennart and RajiV:
Really thanks about your answers. I'm sorry to answer late. I would like tell you that in all this time i was working in resilient model and you are right it isn't easy connect sustainability concepts to resilience concept. Many elements are cuantitative and other cualitative and they are dificult to conect. Some times the variables of study are really subjetive and depent for example culture viewpoint of specific place. So one conclusion about it s that is necessary to build resilient indicator that orient analisis of resilient buldings. Please if all of you still interesting in the topic, don't doub to write me. I wold be glad to shera my work to all of you.
Best wishes,
Rolando
You may find this interesting.
I have recently published a paper that looks at Absolute Sustainability, using the units of measurement of sustainability and the relationships between the units. The approach is intended to be objective, universal, repeatable, and sensitive. It predicts required actions for a community to be resilient, which includes:
- Have an ecological footprint not larger than one's biocapacity. Thus everyone can share equitably.
- Do not import resources nor export wastes to meet needs. This provides resilience for when trade disruptions occur (think Yemen, right now).
- Be able to meet all of the needs of all of the people in 24 hours per day per capita, even if not all of the needs are met.
- Leave a non-declining land mass of every biome managed by the community as wilderness (acting neither as a sink for wastes nor a source for resources), to prevent gaps in the understanding of the ecosystem from causing an immediate collapse
Dear Douglas:
Thank you for your contribution. I'm would like to know more about you experiences to your work. Did you have the opportunity to apply this work in a specific community. Could this work to develop specific indicator? I hope to know your comments soon.
My best wishes, Rolando
This has not been applied to a community or subset of a community. It was finally published on Friday, at http://ssrn.com/abstract=3072764
This is a measurement system, not an indicator system. A way to think about it is like an airplane. The pilot uses 140 indicators on the dashboard to ensure that the pilot in aware of how the complex system that is the aircraft is performing, and can make adjustments to be able to accomplish specific tasks and goals. The engineer who designed the aircraft didn't use any - she used the units of flight (generally thrust, lift, drag, and weight, but others, too) and the relationships between the units to determine the result of every design decision, and she will have kept at it until the aircraft would be able to meet the performance envelope. The engineer will design the indicators for the pilot to use, but only after they make a plane that flies.
Everything can be reduced to the actualized quality of life of the community, which would have the units of time/day/capita. If it is negative, that community (or subset) is not sustainable. If positive, it is. The larger the value, the more sustainable it is, and the broader the boundary of needs could be.
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