Julia M Baird

• Ph.D.
• Associate Professor at Brock University

Effective social‐ecological fit is considered essential for properly managing social‐ecological systems. Despite this importance, the concept of social‐ecological fit lacks the following: clarity in scope and definition, a practical quantitative method to assess effectiveness, and methods capable of equally assessing the social and ecological facto...

Climate change will affect many global landscapes in the future, requiring millions of people to move away from areas at risk from flooding, erosion, drought and extreme temperatures. The term managed retreat is increasingly used in the Global North to refer to the movement of people and infrastructure away from climate risks. Managed retreat, howe...

Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP), the collaborative process of envisioning plausible futures, is a promising approach to aid environmental management and governance in the Anthropocene. Emerging scholarship on PSP emphasizes its potential for social learning to enhance knowledge, values, and competencies for more sustainable governance. Howeve...

There is a growing call in sustainability science and practice to build empathy, especially among actors involved in environmental management. We explored how participatory scenario planning (PSP), a popular collaborative environmental planning tool and an emerging transdisciplinary research approach in sustainability science, can influence empathy...

Environmental knowledge networks (EKNs) link research collaborators in a common purpose to produce data and knowledge to better understand social-ecological phenomena and address environmental challenges. Over recent years, as scientists have grappled with how to produce data and actionable knowledge for conservation and sustainability, more EKNs h...

Complexity, uncertainty, and conflict characterize contemporary environmental challenges. Addressing these issues is beyond the purview of any one actor. A collaborative approach to environmental management is required; participation in collaboration is needed. However, participation in collaborative environmental management is a persistent challen...

Notwithstanding actions taken to date through policy, programmes and practices, the planet remains on an unsustainable pathway. System level and individual actions are needed to address the challenges that confront us. Finding approaches to encourage individual pro‐environmental behaviours are important for shifting an individual's actions, and the...

Human connections to nature are critical to the sustainability of life on earth. Nature connections are often linked with pro-environmental behaviors.Therefore, a better understanding of the nuances of human-nature connections can help inform policies and practices to advance sustainability. Connections to nature research has rarely investigated nu...

Non-technical summary There is a global water crisis, brought on by human actions. The ways we make decisions about water must transform to solve it. We focused on the attitudes that people in society hold toward water to understand how close or far away we are from a broadly accepted worldview that supports this transformation (what we call ‘water...

Power dynamics are widely recognized as key contributors to poor outcomes of environmental governance broadly and specifically for adaptive water governance. Water governance processes are shifting, with increased emphasis on collaboration and learning. Understanding how power dynamics impact these processes in adaptive governance is hence critical...

As a group of social scientists supporting a large, national, multi-site project dedicated to studying ecosystem services in natural resource production landscapes, we were tasked with co-hosting kick-off workshops at multiple locations. When, due to project design and the Covid-19 pandemic, we were forced to reshape our plans for these workshops a...

Social-ecological fit demands that governance systems align with and function at the appropriate scales of social and ecological processes being governed. While multilevel social-ecological network analysis has been applied to assess fit in various contexts, it has not yet been applied to understand transboundary flood planning. We investigate the...

The role of the individual is increasingly a focus in sustainability discourses. We develop and operationalize indicators to measure individual attitudes as they relate to social-ecological resilience, using water systems (or ‘water resilience’) as a focusing concept. We developed a questionnaire instrument and use a vignette technique for addressi...

Large organizations play a critical role in environmental stewardship. The concept of leverage points offers one promising avenue of inquiry to enhance the effectiveness of large organizations in advancing environmental stewardship. Here, we focus on the flow of information within a large environmental organization as a deep leverage point for syst...

Farmer peer networks have been identified as a key way to increase adoption of beneficial management practices to minimize negative environmental impacts of intensive agriculture. We studied the social processes that contribute to beneficial management practice adoption. We administered two questionnaires to participants of a farmer community of pr...

Environmental stewardship—a concept that describes the relationships between humans and the environment—is gaining increased attention as an approach that can address planetary sustainability issues. In‐depth empirical investigations of local environmental stewardship are needed to understand how social‐ecological context influences stewardship, as...

Agriculture and Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sectors account for almost 25 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions through livestock farming, land clearing, and land use activities such as cropping, changing grassland into settlement or deforestation. The LULUCF is a key sector for carbon sink capacity. Despite desperate need...

The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether 2D:4D ratios (a putative measure of prenatal androgen exposure) could be determined using participant-submitted hand images. The secondary purpose was to examine whether 2D:4D ratio was associated with pro-environmental behaviors, attitudes, and empathy, given the recent literature linking se...

Environmental stewardship is increasingly important as human actions threaten the natural world. Now, more than ever, it is necessary to understand what makes stewardship initiatives successful. This study investigates stewardship success in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. Specifically, the research seeks to determine what factors are associ...

Background While the concept of ecosystem services has been widely adopted by scholars and increasingly used in policy and practice, there has been criticism of its usefulness to decision-makers. This systematic map will collect and analyse literature that frames ES as a collaboration tool, rather than as an ecosystem assessment tool, to answer the...

Assessments of ecosystem condition are fundamental to landscape management, and there are several sources of evidence practitioners may use. Perceptions of individuals is one of those sources, and understudied. This study quantitatively compares ecological field measurements and the perceptions of a group of key individuals. Findings reveal that pe...

Responding to disastrous wildfires traversing geographical scales requires multi‐actor collaboration to address a series of interdependent operational tasks. While this type of distributed collective action problem is salient across governance contexts, less is known about if and how collaboration helps individual actors effectively address their t...

Reconnecting to nature is imperative for the sustainability of humans on Earth, offering a leverage point for system change. Connections to nature have been conceptualized as a typology of five types as follows: material; experiential; cognitive; emotional; and, philosophical, ranging from relatively shallow to deeper connections, respectively. Edu...

This paper explores the degree to which the ecosystem services (ES) concept and related tools have been integrated and implemented within the Canadian government context at both the provincial/territorial and federal levels. The research goals of the study were to qualitatively assess the extent to which ES assessment is being integrated at differe...

Understanding the extent to which stewardship initiatives achieve objectives of enhanced ecological outcomes is important for enhancing effectiveness and efficiency of environmental management initiatives. Alternative approaches – community science, stakeholder perceptions, and remote sensing - are emerging in lieu of the conventional approach of c...

Empathy for nature is considered a prerequisite for sustainable interactions with the biosphere. Yet to date, empirical research on how to stimulate empathy remains scarce. Here, we investigate whether future scenarios can promote greater empathy for the oceans. Using a pre‐post empathy questionnaire, participants (N = 269) were presented with an o...

Global social and economic changes, alongside climate change, are affecting the operating environment for agriculture, leading to efforts to increase production and yields, typically through the use of agrochemicals like pesticides and fertilizers, expanded irrigation, and changes in seed varieties. Intensification, alongside the expansion of agric...

Water quality and availability is critical for sustaining life on earth. However, lack of access to potable water and safe sanitation services for billions of people, deteriorating infrastructure, degradation of ecosystems, and impacts of climate change signal a global water crisis. This crisis is unfolding in the era of the Anthropocene, where hum...

This concluding chapter highlights cross-cutting messages and future research needs from the contributions to the volume. It is organized into two sections: the first synthesizes and reflects on the main messages: the nature of water resilience as a continuously negotiated construct; recognition that we are operating within a legacy of water manage...

Engaging in environmental stewardship is critical for sustainability. Understanding individual differences and engagement is an important gap in present scholarship and addressing it is necessary to understand individual factors that relate to the types of activities engaged in, motivations and barriers to environmental stewardship. We surveyed 637...

The aim of this article is to introduce the important role that social, or governance, dimensions play on freshwater systems. Current understandings of principles of water governance that support continued well-being of both human systems and ecosystems are presented. A resilience perspective on water governance is then explained, drawing on key pr...

Collaboration has taken centre stage in addressing complex environmental issues and yet several voids are evident in our understanding of it. A systematic mapping review was conducted to synthesize knowledge about the inner workings of collaboration (qualities, outcomes, and their relationship(s)) in environmental management and governance scholars...

Increasing scholarship has focused on a shift in scientific water paradigm in the 21st century from an understanding of water systems as stationary, predictable and command‐and‐control as appropriate governance to an understanding of them as complex, dynamic, and uncertain. This shift has been characterized in several ways. We focused on two promin...

Reconnecting to nature is imperative for the sustainability of the planet and outdoor experiential programs are an ideal context to operationalize and study sustainability interventions. The purpose of this research is twofold. First, we investigate the extent to which types of connections to nature are expressed by participants who completed an ou...

Water management and governance at the watershed scale is complex, with attention needed to the realities of fit with institutional arrangements and consideration of the dynamic and uncertain nature of social-ecological systems. The concept of social-ecological resilience and its application to water resources – ‘water resilience’ hereafter – offer...

Collaborative approaches to environmental governance are drawing increased interest in research and practice. In this article we investigate the structure and functioning of actor networks engaged in collaboration. We specifically seek to advance understanding of how and why collaborative networks are formed as actors engage in addressing two broad...

In this article, we utilize the Collaborative Governance Databank to empirically explore core theoretical assumptions about collaborative governance in the context of crisis management. By selecting a subset of cases involving episodes or situations characterized by the combination of urgency, threat, and uncertainty, we conduct a plausibility prob...

We synthesize key concepts in ecosystem services governance in the context of enhancing participatory governance of Canadian working landscapes. The ultimate aim is to identify and apply pressure on deep leverage points for transformation.

The biosphere faces an uncertain future! Embracing change, uncertainty and complexity calls for creative transformative pathways. Biosphere stewardship provides a novel multi actor approach towards sustainability. Despite the critical role of individual environmental stewards, biosphere stewardship emphasizes the importance of collective action, an...

Collaboration is a proposed strategy to address super wicked environmental problems, such as climate change. Yet, understanding how it works for climate change adaptation is nascent. This research aims to advance the understanding of this by a cross-case analysis of three cases in New Brunswick, Canada. We sought to illuminate the inner workings of...

In the epoch of the Anthropocene change, complexity, and uncertainty create a demand for new systems of water management and governance. One such management model that is rapidly gaining traction amongst both scholars and practitioners is the concept of water resilience. Although increasing attention has been paid to the overarching theoretical and...

The frequency and severity of natural hazards are predicted to increase with climate change. Collaboration among actors across scales and organizational boundaries is essential to address this escalation. Pre-existing social networks are generally considered a catalyst enabling actors to more quickly address collective action problems. However, emp...

Social and institutional diversity (“diversity” hereafter) are important dimensions in collaborative environmental governance, but lack empirical assessment. In this paper, we examine three aspects of diversity hypothesized in the literature as being important in collaborative forms of environmental governance—the presence of diverse actors, divers...

Conflict in environmental governance is common, and bringing together stakeholders with diverse perspectives in situations of conflict is extremely difficult. However, case studies of how diverse stakeholders form self-organized coalitions under these circumstances exist and provide invaluable opportunities to understand the causal mechanisms that...

Integrating conservation and sustainable development is difficult, but organisations charged with this mandate must move forward with implementation. Adaptive Co-Management (ACM), an approach that brings together the learning function of adaptation with the linking function of collaboration, has been identified as a promising way to enhance the eff...

Ecological restoration is a means of addressing the ongoing and pervasive degradation of ecological systems. Although the aim of ecological restoration is ecosystem recovery, efforts based on an oversimplified understanding of how complex adaptive systems behave often fail to produce intended outcomes. We explore how advancements made in understand...

A convoluted network of different water governance systems exists around the world. Collectively, these systems provide insight into how to build sustainable regimes of water use and management. We argue that the challenge is not tomake the systemless convoluted, but rather to support positive and promising trends in governance, creating a vision f...

Flooding is routinely among the most disastrous annual events worldwide with extensive impacts on human wellbeing, economies and ecosystems. Thus, how decisions are made about floods (i.e. flood governance) is extremely important and evidence shows that it is changing, with non-governmental actors (civil society and the private sector) becoming inv...

Governance has emerged as a central issue in addressing contemporary and future water challenges. Many shortcomings of past approaches to water policy in Canada are revealed in this volume as they relate to conservation (Changing Currents: A Case Study in the Evolution of Water Law in Western Canada and Patchy resources for the governance of Canada...

Stresses on water resources are considerable and will intensify in the future due to climatic and non-climatic drivers. The emerging shift from science-based command and control ‘old’ water management approach to a dynamic and integrative systems view of water—a ‘new’ water management approach—was explored using the concept of capacity, operational...

This paper examines relationships among perceived processes and outcomes in four UNESCO biosphere reserves (BRs). BRs offer a unique opportunity to examine these relationships because they aim to foster more adaptive and collaborative forms of management, i.e. adaptive co-management (ACM). Accounting for the outcomes of ACM is a difficult task and...

We empirically examine relationships among the conditions that enable learning, learning effects and sustainability outcomes based on experiences in four biosphere reserves in Canada and Sweden. In doing so, we provide a novel approach to measure learning and address an important methodological and empirical challenge in assessments of learning pro...

Multi-stakeholder environmental management and governance processes are essential to realize social and ecological outcomes. Participation, collaboration, and learning are emphasized in these processes; to gain insights into how they influence stakeholders’ evaluations of outcomes in relation to management and governance interventions we use a path...

Additional detail on data preparation. (DOCX)

Additional detail on data analysis and preparation. (DOCX)

Descriptive statistics. (DOCX)

Data collection instrument. (DOCX)

Adaptive comanagement is at an important cross-road: different research paths forward are possible, and a diagnostic approach has been identified as a promising one. Accordingly, we operationalize a diagnostic approach, using a framework, to set a new direction for adaptive comanagement research. We set out three main first-tier variables: antecede...

To further the understanding of climate change adaptation processes, more attention needs to be paid to the various contextual factors that shape whether and how climate-related knowledge and information is received and acted upon by actors involved. This study sets out to examine the characteristics of forest owners' in Sweden, the information and...

Addressing wicked ‘water dilemmas’ requires an understanding of the context within which they are embedded. This study explored perceptions of the ecosystem in terms of resilience and the governance approaches employed through a content analysis of documents from seven case studies across the globe. Analytical constructs developed for resilience an...

Water has often been the source of crises and their frequency will intensify due to climate change impacts. The Niagara River Watershed provides an ideal case to study water crises as it is an international transboundary system (Canada-United States) and has both historical and current challenges associated with water quantity and quality, which re...

A shift appears to be occurring in thinking about flooding, from a resistance-based approach to one of resilience. Accordingly, how stakeholders in flood-prone regions perceive the system and its governance are salient questions. This study queried stakeholders’ internal representations of ecosystems (resistance- or resilience-based), preferences f...

Agricultural practices have been linked to detrimental effects on ecosystems, with water quality of particular concern. Research has been devoted to understanding uptake of beneficial, or best, management practices (BMPs) in agriculture; however, sources of advice and subsequent effects on the landscape have not been elucidated. This study set out...

Resilience as an organizing framework for addressing dynamics of social–ecological systems has experienced strong uptake; however, its application is nascent. This research study aimed to address the gap between resilience thinking and practice by focusing on learning, a key aspect of resilience. Two Canadian watershed groups were led in 2-day work...

River health is a concern worldwide. Governance of river basins is particularly complicated when they are large scale and cross jurisdictional boundaries. Past approaches to making decisions in transboundary basins are limited and attention is increasingly being focused on the potential of collaboration. This research investigates the initiation ph...

Watersheds are complex systems involving social, economic, and ecological dimensions that are constantly interacting and influencing each other. Often the interactions among the different dimensions in a watershed are unpredictable and uncertainty is inevitable. Think for a moment about the countless factors that influence water quality in a waters...

Drinking water quality problems are persistent and challenging for many of Canada's First Nations communities despite past and ongoing initiatives to improve the situation. These initiatives have often been employed without consideration for understanding the social context that is so critical for the development of appropriate water governance app...

The search for strategies to address ‘super wicked problems’ such as climate change is gaining urgency, and a collaborative governance approach, and adaptive co-management in particular, is increasingly recognized as one such strategy. However, the conditions for adaptive co-management to emerge and the resulting network structures and relational p...

Current Canadian policy approaches to agricultural water quality encourage the adoption of best management practices through voluntary, incentive-based measures. Despite these measures, concerns about agricultural impacts on water quality persist. Performance-based policy approaches with incentives that are tied to defined outcomes, and not to part...

Aquatic environments embody the characteristics of complex social-ecological systems and as pressures on them intensify so does concern about their resilience. Resilience research has advanced the conceptual understanding of how aquatic systems function and underscored the need for an adaptive approach to management. More recently, a growing emphas...

Learning is gaining attention in relation to governance processes for contemporary environmental challenges; however, scholarship at the nexus of learning and environmental governance lacks clarity and understanding about how to define and measure learning, and the linkages between learning, social interactions, and environment. In response, this s...

Source water protection varies by locale, and approaches and experiences are accumulating in response to concerns about drinking water safety. Learning lessons and transferring them from experiences elsewhere is a well-established practice for addressing water governance challenges. In response to the need to enhance source water protection policie...

A growing need for innovation in water policy is increasingly recognized within water policy and governance scholarship, but the types of innovation and changes being considered or undertaken, and the conditions that enable or hinder those changes remain unclear. A systematic review of water policy reform literature was undertaken to investigate ho...

Climate change adaptation presents a challenge to current top-down governance structures, including the tension between provision of public goods and actions required by diverse stakeholders, including private actors. Alternative governance approaches that facilitate participation and learning across scales are gaining attention for their ability t...

Forest use in Northern Sweden is being influenced both by global trends and local situations. This results in interactions between numerous groups that may impact local forest governance. Social network analysis can here provide insight into the total pattern of positive, negative, and cross-level interactions within user group community structure...

Access to sources of safe drinking water is imperative to human health and of concern in both developing and developed countries. A myriad of responses have occurred to enhance drinking water safety in Canada over the decade since the Walkerton tragedy. Pressing questions remain about drinking water safety, especially in small systems and private w...

Adaptive co-management is a governance approach gaining recognition. It emphasizes pluralism and communication; shared decision-making and authority; linkages within and among levels; actor autonomy; and, learning and adaptation. Adaptive co-management is just starting to be applied for climate change adaptation. In drawing upon adaptive co-managem...

There is growing acknowledgement of collaborative water governance as an effective means to deal with the complexity, uncertainty and dynamic nature of environmental challenges. However, the qualities of ‘good’ collaborative water governance are not widely recognized. Concerns regarding legitimacy in particular accompany shifts from government to g...

Phosphorus (P) can be low in soil under low input organic management; however, beneficial crop plant associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are known to promote crop nutrition and increase phosphorus uptake. Thus, management strategies that promote AMF associations are particularly desirable for low-input cropping systems. The objecti...

Organic lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) producers must rely upon the recommended rate ror conventional production or 130 plants m , but this seeding rate may not be suitable, as organic and conventional production systems differ in management and inputs. The objective of this study was to determine an optimal seeding rate for organic production of l...

Seeding rates have not been established for organic production of field pea in the northern Great Plains and producers must rely upon a recommended target stand of 88 plants m-2 for conventional production of this crop. This seeding rate may not be suitable as the two systems differ in the use of inputs and in pest management. The objective of this...