Content area
Full text
ABSTRACT: An integral dynamic model, in combination with other methods (indicators, policy and scenario analysis), is presented as a tool for sustainability assessment in island socio-ecological systems (SES). The Fuerteventura sustainability model (FSM), tested for the 1996-2011, allows a better understanding of the dynamic interactions between sustainability indicators and other factors of this island. The FSM was first applied to analyse the vulnerability of this island to climate change for the 2012-2025 period; results point to the need for urgent measures to mitigate its effects on some of the analysed indicators. A set of policy measures was then assessed from the behaviour of nine indicators and their sustainability thresholds. Finally, the FSM facilitated the development of a dynamic model of the island of El Hierro, extrapolating the features common to both SES. We propose this to be a useful tool for the quantitative sustainability assessment and the management of real island socio-ecological systems.
Keywords: Canary Islands, El Hierro, Fuerteventura, island socio-ecological systems, policy measures assessment, scenarios, sustainability indicators, system dynamic models
© 2016 - Institute of Island Studies, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada
Introduction: sustainability in island socio-ecological systems
There is an increasing interest in the assessment of sustainability in island socio-ecological systems (Baldacchino, 2006; Petrosillo, Costanza, Aretano, et al., 2013). This may be due to the large potential of islands as observatories of sustainability, where the close interaction between ecological aspects and socio-economic processes is explicitly acknowledged.
Socio-ecological systems (SES) can be defined as integrated systems of ecosystems and human society, with reciprocal feedback (Anderies, Janssen & Ostrom, 2004; Halliday and Glaser, 2011). These interacting components form a complex and dynamic entity, the analysis of which requires a holistic approach (Hodbod & Adger, 2014; Hidalgo, Ther, Saavedra, & Díaz, 2015).
Non-sustainable trends in the evolution of SES have stimulated a search for new approaches towards the better understanding of the complex and problematic relationship between the environment and development (UNEP, 2002). The current application of sustainable policies in SES is quite far from what is required. Several barriers and difficulties explain this gap between knowledge and action:
i) Despite the increasing recognition of the close inter-dependencies between the economic, environmental and social components, in practice, these dimensions are frequently considered separately.
ii)...