Resilience Practice: Building Capacity to Absorb Disturbance and Maintain Function

In 2006, Resilience Thinking addressed an essentialquestion: As the natural systems that sustain us are subjected to shockafter shock, how much can they take and still deliver the services weneed from them? This idea caught the attention of both the scientificcommunity and the general public.In Resilience Practice, authors Brian Walker and David Salttake the notion of resilience one step further, applying resiliencethinking to real-world situations and exploring how systems can bemanaged to promote and sustain resilience.The book begins with an overview and introduction to resiliencethinking and then takes the reader through the process of describingsystems, assessing their resilience, and intervening as appropriate.Following each chapter is a case study of a different type ofsocial-ecological system and how resilience makes a difference to thatsystem in practice. The final chapters explore resilience in otherarenas, including on a global scale.Resilience Practice will help people with an interest inthe “coping capacity” of systems—from farms andcatchments to regions and nations—to better understand howresilience thinking can be put into practice. It offers an easy-to-readbut scientifically robust guide through the real-world application ofthe concept of resilience and is a must read for anyone concerned withthe management of systems at any scale.

Brian Walker is past chief of Australia's CSIRODivision of Wildlife and Ecology and is currently the program directorof the Resilience Alliance. David Salt is a sciencewriter and editor with eighteen years experience writing and producingpopular science magazines and newsletters for a wide range ofaudiences.

In 2006, Resilience Thinking addressed an essentialquestion: As the natural systems that sustain us are subjected to shockafter shock, how much can they take and still deliver the services weneed from them? This idea caught the attention of both the scientificcommunity and the general public.In Resilience Practice, authors Brian Walker and David Salttake the notion of resilience one step further, applying resiliencethinking to real-world situations and exploring how systems can bemanaged to promote and sustain resilience.The book begins with an overview and introduction to resiliencethinking and then takes the reader through the process of describingsystems, assessing their resilience, and intervening as appropriate.Following each chapter is a case study of a different type ofsocial-ecological system and how resilience makes a difference to thatsystem in practice. The final chapters explore resilience in otherarenas, including on a global scale.Resilience Practice will help people with an interest inthe “coping capacity” of systems—from farms andcatchments to regions and nations—to better understand howresilience thinking can be put into practice. It offers an easy-to-readbut scientifically robust guide through the real-world application ofthe concept of resilience and is a must read for anyone concerned withthe management of systems at any scale.

Brian Walker is past chief of Australia's CSIRODivision of Wildlife and Ecology and is currently the program directorof the Resilience Alliance. David Salt is a sciencewriter and editor with eighteen years experience writing and producingpopular science magazines and newsletters for a wide range ofaudiences.

Alternative names:

• UBC Press Resilience Practice book Paperback 248 pages
• UBC Press Resilience Practice book Paperback 248 pages