p.283 Vulnerability is registered not by exposure to hazards alone; it also resides in the resilience of
the system experiencing the hazard. Resilience (the capacity of a system to absorb recurrent disturbances,
such as natural disasters, so as to retain essential structures, processes and feedbacks) is important for the discussion
of vulnerability for three reasons: (1) it helps evaluate hazards holistically... (2) it puts the
emphasis on the ability of a system to deal with a hazard, absorbing the disturbance or adapting to it, and (3) it
is forward-looking and helps explore policy options for dealing with uncertainty and future change. Building
resilience into human-environment systems is an effective way to cope with change characterized by surprises and unknowable
risks.
p.284 As Tompkins and Adger (2004) put it, building resilience into human-environment systems is an effective
way to cope with change characterized by future surprises or unknowable risks. It provides a way for thinking about policies
for future environmental change
p.284 Social and ecological systems are sufficiently complex that our knowledge of them, and our
ability to predict their future dynamics, will never be complete. We must work to reduce uncertainties when possible,
improve assessments of the likelihood of various future events, and learn (Kinzig et al. 2000).
p.287 Adaptive capacity refers to the ability of the actors in a system to influence or manage resilience
(Walker and Meyers 2004).
p.290 The resilience of a system is closely related to its capacity for self-organization because nature's
cycles involve renewal and reorganization (Holling 2001).
p.291 a dynamic learning component is crucial for providing a rapid ability to innovate in terms of the
capacity to create new responses or arrangements.
p.292 Resilience provides a conceptual tool to deal with uncertainty and future change.
p.293 Diversity provides the seeds for new opportunities and maximizes the options for coping with change.
