OPINION Open-minded Geographers: Their Potential Role in Integrated Adaptive Environmental Management

Authors: GRAEME APLIN; PAUL BATTEN

Source: Australian Geographer, Volume 35, Number 3, November 2004 , pp. 355-363(9)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

There are three key factors to be considered in comprehensive environmental management: (a) integration across disciplines and interests; (b) flexibility and adaptability based on feedback; and (c) interactions between policy and implementation at different scales. Successful management is both integrated and inclusive, and also adaptive and flexible. It involves a synthesis of work, requiring empathy among contributors and active synthesis. Furthermore, there is a need for a dialectical consideration of processes acting at various scales. Geographers who are not too narrowly specialised have a key role to play, and, collectively, might have been more centrally involved in environmental management than they have been.

Keywords: Geography; environment; management; integration; synthesis; inclusiveness; flexibility; scale; sustainability

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0004918042000311368

Affiliations: 1: Macquarie University Australia

Publication date: 2004-11-01

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