| Title: | The Lake Champlain Basin as a Complex Adaptive System: Insights from the Research on Adaptation to Climate Change (“RACC”) Project |
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| Author: | Christopher Koliba, Asim Zia, Andrew Schroth, Arne Bomblies, Judy Van Houten, Donna M. Rizzo |
| Publication Year: | 2016 |
| Number of Pages in Article: | 31 |
| Journal/Publication: | Vermont Journal of Environmental Law |
| Publication Type: | Technical and Demonstration |
| Citation: | Koliba, C., A. Zia, A. Schroth, A. Bomblies, J. Van Houten, D.M. Rizzo (2016) The Lake Champlain Basin as a Complex Adaptive System: Insights from the Research on Adaptation to Climate Change (“RACC”) Project. Vermont J. Environ. Law, 17(4), 533-563. |
| Abstract: | Like all large, freshwater lake systems situated within a populated region, the Lake Champlain Basin (“LCB”) is a decidedly “social ecological system,” meaning that human activity has altered the ecosystem through human land use decisions, development patterns, infrastructure, and water management practices to the extent that we may no longer consider ecosystems as divorced from human influence and impact. Likewise, as paleoclimatological studies have shown, the Earth’s climate (heating and cooling cycles, precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events) has directly shaped landscapes and ecosystems and often dictated societies’ land use and land management decisions. As the climate changes, it has been the case that landscapes, ecosystems, and human actions are intertwined and adapt in response to one another. By viewing the LCB as a social ecological system that is adapting in response to climate change, watershed planners can better anticipate the region’s water quality challenges. Without managing this adaptation, acceleration in the decline of water quality in the LCB is likely. This article draws on the transdisciplinary research project undertaken by a team of Vermont scientists and students to study and model aspects of the LCB as a complex adaptive system comprising climatological, terrestrial, aquatic, and human components (including public and private social behaviors, land use decisions, and policy and governance responses to water quality needs). We will highlight the activities and some of the preliminary results to emerge from the early stages of the National Science Foundation funded Research on Adaptation to Climate Change (“RACC”) project. With a goal to inform the “adaptive management” of the LCB’s watersheds, we will also discuss implications of the RACC project for addressing critical policy challenges facing the region. |