Exploring Links Among Ecological, Social and Personal Resilience (2022-2023)

As coastal hazards increase in intensity and frequency, the need for coastal resilience — the ability to withstand or adjust to stressors — is increasing faster than ever. Fostering coastal resilience must incorporate strategies to support ecological, social and personal resilience. 

Environmental literacy aligns well with these aims, as it includes an understanding of socioecological systems, skills for engaging in environmental solutions, and dispositions necessary for motivating action, at both individual and community scales. Community-based restoration is an ideal context for embedding environmental literacy in efforts that will improve ecological resilience, bring communities together and provide individual agency to strengthen personal resilience.

This project team explored the links among the concepts of ecological, social and personal resilience as they might relate to ecological restoration. Throughout the year, they conducted a deep dive into resilience literature to understand and identify historical knowledge gaps. Team members then developed a roadmap for how ecological restoration can be used to build personal and community resilience by enhancing optimism, social networks, adaptive learning and more.

The project team produced a toolkit for restoration practitioners and community members to enhance community resilience through ecological restoration. Team members also began work on a peer-reviewed publication that sets the conceptual grounding for thinking about restoration and community resilience.

Timing

Fall 2022 – Spring 2023 

Team Outputs

Community Resilience Through Ecological Restoration (2023 Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Virtual Showcase)

Exploring Links Among Ecological, Social and Personal Resilience (poster by Abigail Bromberger, Olivia Hayward, India Mackinson, Sydney Mantell, Rory McCollum, Anne Roderer, Finnie Zhao, Liz DeMattia and Carter Smith, presented at Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, Duke University, April 19, 2023)

Toolkit on community resilience

Reflection

Finnie Zhao

This Team in the News

Meet the Members of the 2022-2023 Student Advisory Council

Meet the Winners of the 2023 Bass Connections Student Research Awards

 

Image: Sunrise at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort, NC, by Jared Lazarus

Sunrise.

Team Leaders

  • Elizabeth DeMattia, Nicholas School of the Environment-Marine Science and Conservation
  • Carter Smith, Nicholas School of the Environment-Marine Science and Conservation

/graduate Team Members

  • India Mackinson, Master of Environmental Management, Coastal Environmental Management
  • Sydney Mantell, Community Based Environmental, Master of Environmental Management, Coastal Environmental Management
  • Anne Roderer, Master of Environmental Management, Water Resources Management

/undergraduate Team Members

  • Abigail Bromberger, Public Policy Studies (AB)
  • Olivia Hayward, Public Policy Studies (AB)
  • Zixin Zhao, Economics (BS)

/yfaculty/staff Team Members

  • Elizabeth Albright, Nicholas School of the Environment-Environmental Sciences and Policy
  • Xavier Basurto Guillermo, Nicholas School of the Environment-Marine Science and Conservation
  • Brian McAdoo, Nicholas School of the Environment-Earth and Climate Sciences
  • Brian Silliman, Nicholas School of the Environment-Marine Science and Conservation
  • Rebecca Vidra, Nicholas School of the Environment-Environmental Sciences and Policy

/zcommunity Team Members

  • Rachel Bissesi, North Carolina Coastal Federation
  • Kathryn Stevenson, NCSU

Theme(s):