Marcela Brugnach

A les regions d'alta muntanya, l'adaptació al canvi climàtic representa un gran desafiament, i continuarà representant-lo en el futur, especialment en qüestions relacionades amb la gestió de l'aigua i la degradació i pèrdua de glaceres. Els coneixements científics sobre el tema encara són limitats, però les cultures locals, que també són les més vulnerables al canvi climàtic, conserven coneixements ancestrals sobre el clima de muntanya i les glaceres que poden ajudar a garantir la seguretat hídrica de les seues pròpies comunitats i dels qui viuen en ciutats més grans riu avall. En aquest article, presentem una visió general i multidimensional per a integrar diversos sistemes de coneixement i fomentar un intercanvi dinàmic i recíproc amb l'objectiu de crear formes de coneixement que combinen el que la ciència i les gents saben sobre les glaceres. Sostenim que la combinació de diferents enfocaments pot ajudar-nos a desenvolupar una comprensió més sòlida, inclusiva i viable dels canvis que s'estan produint en els entorns d'alta muntanya.

While SDGs have become a common ground to address global sustainability systematically, neither the existing synergies and tradeoffs among the different SDGs nor the magnitude of their compound effects at global versus national scales are well understood. Although introducing two indices of Spillover Index and Global Commons Stewardship (GCS) shed light on these issues, the capability of these widely agreed SDGs in fulfilling every nation's needs and dedication to protecting global sustainability is yet questionable. The SDGs' shortcomings are most evident when there are interdependencies and contradictory requirements among SDGs, becoming critical when SDGs at the national level protect one country at the expense of another one. The impact of achieving food security (often in water rich countries) through the import of agricultural products from their trade partner countries (often in water scarce countries) is one of the examples.Here we aim to understand whether and how lacking a global nexus perspective that takes into account the synergies and tradeoffs among the different SDGs can counteract other nations and SDGs. We investigate the connection between SDG 2 and 6 in the context of water and food security; particularly, the impact of food security strategies of an importing country on the water security of its trade partner countries. The findings present that although neglecting the tight links between SDGs of 2 and 6 may have a positive sectoral effect at a country level, it fails global sustainability as it impacts the involved countries unevenly and often antipodally. it emphasizes the need for a revision of SDG2, as it inadequately captures the perspective of food security from the standpoint of hunger. This study advocates for inclusion of NEXUS and system thinking in the reformulation of the SDGs, their targets, and the associated indicators.

Ambiguity is a unique form of uncertainty that goes beyond merely indicating knowledge deficits or gaps; rather, it represents a state of confusion among decision actors. This confusion arises within a group due to the coexistence of diverse, and at times, conflicting meanings and interpretations concerning a situation. In the presence of ambiguity, it may not be clear what the main issues of concern are, who hold responsibility over them, what needs to be done. As an inherent characteristic of a collective, ambiguity is tightly linked with diversity and plurality, and the processes and procedures that underlie group dynamics. Here, I argue that ambiguity plays a pivotal role in adapting to climate change.To investigate the functioning of ambiguity, I draw upon (uncertainty) relational theory and analyse different study cases of water management. The results suggest that ambiguity can yield significant benefits in adaptation. It enhances flexibility in managing unknown conditions, enables the anticipation of conflicts and avoids maladaptation, and creates opportunities for establishing new supportive relationships and alternative solutions. These insights contribute to a nuanced understanding of the role of ambiguity in climate change adaptation, offering valuable guidance for policymakers, water managers, and stakeholders engaged in crafting resilient and sustainable water management strategies.

Exacerbated by climate change, water scarcity in the Mediterranean basin poses one of the most significant environmental challenges in the region, compromising adaptation capacities. Current knowledge of how forests contribute to rainwater recycling, i.e. by increasing evapotranspiration and promoting orographic precipitation, has led to the proposal of forest management strategies to mitigate desertification in the western Mediterranean basin. Focusing on a case study in eastern Spain, where formerly arable lands are today covered by dense forests, we reflect on the uncertainties that arise from this relation between land use changes and orographic precipitation at the watershed scale. We aim to transform the encountered uncertainties into actionable opportunities for adapting this territory to ongoing climate change. To support the development of intervention strategies that increase climate resilience, we use an interdisciplinary approach that integrates participatory processes for co-designing sustainable land management measures and a systematic literature review from which we identify the physical and biophysical uncertainties arising from the rainwater recycling hypothesis. In search of practical applications, we are developing a decision support game to test the implementation conditions of the management strategies. This game provides decision-makers with a tool to assess how the proposed measures align with the needs, capabilities, and willingness of local stakeholders, and it also enables reflecting on potential trade-offs. This research contributes to strengthening the water cycle through adaptive land management and, thus, promoting a more resilient western Mediterranean basin.

This work presents a reflection on the meaning and significance of knowledge coproduction in the field of glaciology. We start by invoking the paradigm of Structure–Form–Environment Interplay (SFEI) to formulate a generalised definition of glaciology, which highlights the relevance of knowledge coproduction. The adoption of a relational view of glaciological knowledge leads us to identify five core dimensions of knowledge coproduction: purpose, ethics, ambiguity, inclusion/exclusion, and relationships. Based on those dimensions, we delve into the decisive methodological aspects of the coproduction process, namely the definition of its purpose, the identification of participants, the organisation of the process, the recognition of ambiguity in Ways of Knowing (WoKs), and the consideration of ethical implications. In addition to the already known three stages of knowledge coproduction process (codesign, codevelopment, and codelivery), we propose the inclusion of an additional preparation stage, which entails the acknowledgment of the identity and involvement of all human and nonhuman participants, their positionality, and means to ensure their cultural and ontological safety. We reason that knowledge coproduction does not replace the scientific method, but rather complements it, eliciting the possibility to unveil deeper insights that might be difficult to attain through unilateral means.

Coastal dunes play an essential role in defence against the sea in many countries, including the Netherlands. Sandy Anthropogenic Shores (SAS) is the recent nature-based human intervention for dune reinforcement. SAS are coastal zones (including shores, dunes, lagoons, etc.) that are created or heavily modified by moving large amounts of dredged sand from offshore to near the coast. This allows natural processes (waves, winds, and currents) to spread the sand and reinforce the foredune for longer-term coastal safety. Not only the natural processes but also vegetation cover near the dune foot and on the foredune play essential roles in trapping windblown sand from the coast, steering embryo dune development and dune growth. The Sand Motor and Hondsbossche Dunes are two examples of SAS in the Netherlands. Previous studies of vegetation on SAS have mainly assessed the influence of natural conditions such as climate change, nutrient availability, sand burial, beach shape (morphology and width), hydrodynamic wave characteristics, etc., on vegetation propagation. The impacts of short-term human management of the coast and recreational activities still need to be addressed. We chose an agent-based model (ABM) approach to simulate human activities, including management and use of SAS and coupled it with a biophysical model similar to DUBEVEG. DUBEVEG is a biophysical model simulating the interactions between natural processes caused by wind, wave and tide, vegetation cover, and beach-dune sediment dynamics. We conducted several interviews and workshops with stakeholders from the management sectors. We also surveyed the beach users to elicit knowledge about social dynamics and their interaction with the biophysical system (morphology and vegetation). Using NetLogo, we developed an ABM, translating the elicited knowledge into a quantitative model. The developed ABM was used to analyse how various landscape designs of the modified coast (e.g., types and locations of recreational facilities such as restaurants, beach houses, artificial lagoons, entrances, car parking, etc.) influence human activities. Then, we used the model to explore the impact of human dynamics on vegetation growth and embryo dune development in the long term. The developed ABM model improves the sustainable design and management of the SAS by exploring the influence of SAS's initial design and short-term decisions about recreational activities and flood safety measures on the long-term evolution of the landscape (vegetation and morphology).

The need for a pluralistic approach to biodiversity conservation science and policy is increasingly being recognized. We argue that plural perspectives require multilingualism in the sources and processes. Unless the linguistic bias and the related issues in terms of legitimacy and validity, resistance to inclusion, and knowledge coproduction are meaningfully addressed, biodiversity science and its positive effects for conservation policy and practices will necessarily be limited. We propose a series of options to address the linguistic biases in biodiversity conservation science and policy, including extending and tightening collaboration with environmental humanities scholars from diverse traditions as well as researchers from diverse linguistic contexts. We conclude by showing how multilingualism is especially relevant for cross‐scale and global biodiversity governance. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.