Taking resilience from concept to practice : an interdisciplinary assessment of rural communities facing regional environmental change in Canadian boreal forests
department or school: Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
department or school: Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences, Department of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Friberg, Robert
issued: 2022-04-28T18:51:02Z
issued: 2022
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Rural communities are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of environmental change. A recent mountain pine beetle outbreak in western Canada is a prime example of socio-economic impacts from regional-scale disturbance driven by climate change and forest management policy. Resilience thinking holds promise for advancing the sustainability of rural communities, but its usefulness is hindered by its conceptual complexity, disciplinary divides, and a lack of practical frameworks that respond to real-world contexts. The research in this dissertation advances the integration and practical application of resilience through a structured comparison of key concepts and the development of a resilience typology and framework adapted to rural communities. The framework and typology provide a conceptual grounding for case study research with three Alberta communities facing the impacts of pine beetle epidemic. The findings highlight significant variation in the exposure, stability, and adaptive capacity between communities. Resilience is supported by community attributes including strong social cohesion, natural capital, and resourcefulness. However, the cumulative impacts of pine beetle and other identified stressors have the potential to drive some communities beyond thresholds of social and economic viability, resulting in downward spirals of human, economic, and cultural capital. To advance resilience, municipal and higher levels of governance need to address weaknesses in rural infrastructure and financial capital, contingency resources, economic autonomy from global market cycles, and capacity for managing through rapid change. There was concern that local complacency, resistance to change, and declines in volunteerism might limit community adaptive capacity in some instances. Cumulative impacts of resource extraction in the region, and unresolved tensions over economic, biodiversity, and cultural values may further limit options for responding effectively to events like …
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/81425
note: TAKING RESILIENCE FROM CONCEPT TO PRACTICE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ASSESSMENT OF RURAL COMMUNITIES FACING REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN CANADIAN BOREAL FORESTS by Robert Friberg, RPF Master of Arts in Environment and Management, Royal Roads University, 2010 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Interdisciplinary Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) April 2022 © Robert Friberg, 2022 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: TAKING RESILIENCE FROM CONCEPT TO PRACTICE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ASSESSMENT OF RURAL COMMUNITIES FACING REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN CANADIAN BOREAL FORESTS submitted by Robert Friberg in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Kevin Hanna, University of British Columbia (Okanagan) Supervisor Lael Parrott, University of British Columbia (Okanagan) Co-supervisor Donna Senese, University of British Columbia (Okanagan) Supervisory Committee Member Gary Bull, University of British Columbia (Vancouver) Supervisory Committee Member Chris Gaston, University of British Columbia (Vancouver) University Examiner Sara Teitelbaum, Université de Montréal External Examiner iii Abstract Rural communities are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of environmental change. A recent mountain pine beetle outbreak in western Canada is a prime example of socio-economic impacts from regional-scale disturbance driven by climate change and forest management policy. Resilience thinking holds promise for advancing the sustainability of rural communities, but its usefulness is hindered by its conceptual complexity, disciplinary divides, and a lack of practical frameworks that respond to real-world contexts. The research in this dissertation advances the integration and practical application of resilience t…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2022-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0413127
language: eng
degree discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Hanna, Kevin S. (Kevin Stuart), 1961-
contributor: Parrott, Lael
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/81425