Event Description
Global environmental change is contributing to shifts in droughts and floods patterns. Increasing environmental pressures, such as pollution, diminish the capacity of lakes, rivers and coastal zones to cope. There is increasing evidence that many aquatic systems can pass thresholds where sudden and surprisingly large changes in their functions takes place. Examples include the rapid development of hypoxic areas in coastal zones and lakes that switch from clear water to turbid water, referred to as regime shifts. When these changes occur, many of the benefits that society derives from these systems, such as fisheries and places for recreation, can be lost. It is often difficult, costly, and sometimes impossible to reverse these situations once a certain threshold is crossed. Although we know these types of regime shifts happen and have important consequences, we still have limited knowledge on: 

1) how ubiquitous they are
2) where particularly vulnerable regions exist, and
3) how we can build resilience to avoid undesirable tipping points. 

Current research, policy-making and management therefore face new challenges. This includes issues such as: how to improve our predictive capacity to understand when thresholds are approached and and how to adapt accordingly; how to deal with the large uncertainty involved; and how to improve management and governance to build resilience in order to avoid regime shifts.

The workshop will focus on how to assess and manage resilience of social-ecological systems related to water quality challenges. It will examine the existence of regime shifts and tipping points in aquatic systems, how these regime shifts can be predicted and/or anticipated, and which strategies need to be adopted when faced with the risk of regime shifts. Particular focus will be on tools that can be useful to deal with uncertainty, such as adaptive management and scenario planning, to improve land and water management interventions.

Programme

Chair: Dr. Johan Rockström, Stockholm Resilience Centre/Stockholm Enviroment Institute
Co-chair/Commentator: Prof. Michael McClain, UNESCO-IHE 
Rapporteurs: Dr. Line Gordon, Stockholm Resilience Centre Prof. Hubert Savenije, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Keynote Speakers: Dr. Alain Vidal, Director, Challenge Program on Water and Food, CGIAR and Ms. Reinette Biggs, Stockholm Resilience Centre