Will beach municipal managers enhance the management social network to ensure the ecosystem services sustainability in a climate change scenario?

Abstract

Ecosystem-Based management (EBM) is a pertinent tool to manage coastal zones in the Climate Change (CC) context: it considers the diagnosis of socio-ecological vulnerabilities in order to early respond to them. Among the challenges for its implementation, the lack of a systemic vision and the divergence of opinions among decision makers are intensified in the management of complex environments, such as sandy beaches. The management in this environment tends to be characterized by a lack of coordination among public agencies, involving few actors and disregarding ecological processes and its connection with human well-being. To overcome the challenges of EBM implementation it is necessary to understand the applied dimension of the management to a particular context, promoting coordinated efforts and communication. Therefore, the concept of Ecosystem Services (ES) can be a useful communication tool within management and between science and management during the EBM implementation process. The use of ES to enhance EBM implementation in the CC context can be done through a vulnerability analysis, considering the capacity of municipal management to adapt its structure to better respond to change by ensuring the ES provision today and in the future. This capacity to keep the provision of ES by the municipal management structure, i.e. management adaptive capacity, can be improved by the promotion of social networks between social and organizational scales, creating opportunities to better meet the complexity, diversity, and uncertainties of socio-ecological systems. Therefore, mapping the structure of social networks that permeate municipal governments is essential. The mapping can be accessed by the municipal managers view on management capacity to change the social network that permeates its structure in order to aggregate more information and coordinate efforts to enhance sustainability. To analyze the managers' views on the beach management adaptive capacity to sustain the provision of ES in the CC context, the present project purpose an approach called "Influence Network mapping" method integrated within a focus group methodology. The Net-Map methodology is reported to stimulate network alteration from the inside by facilitating strategic networking by its participants. The focus group methodology facilitates a deeper exploration of how people perceive and build the Ecosystem Services concept. Therefore these 5,5 months of research abroad will focus on the analysis of the managers perceived adaptive capacity to deal with CC through a Social Network Analysis. Moreover, the project will discuss how different managers' views on adaptive capacity can affect the implementation of EBM in beaches, subsidizing strategies to overcome the encountered challenges. (AU)