The Sea stops here or does it?

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN OCEANOGRAPHY (ITO-98)

GOA, INDIA 12-16 OCTOBER 1998

The Sea stops here or does it?

Dravid J. Brunckhorst and Nick M. Rollings

Department of Ecosystem Management and
Institute for Bioregional Resource Management
University of New England
Armidale NSW 2351,Australia

The coastal marine systems are the most threatened ecological systems on the globe. Yet humans ultimately depend on them for food and resources. Land-sea systems are essentaillyfour dimensional and the inhabitants, species and assemblages, vary markedly in the enviromental attributes on which they depend. Likewise, solutions to human impacts on ecosystems require examination of multiple temporal and spatial levels of organisation. Resources use, development and conservation decisions should be based on assessment of both environmental and human community needs in a broad spatio-temporal context.

Future sustainability will depend on the system of resource governance that mediates the relationship the citizenry and the economy on one hand, and continuance of ecosystem functional processes on the other. New methods need to be developed that recognise and account for the scales of influence that interconnected social and ecosystem functional elements have on one another. We discuss the conceptual and theoretical framework behind a new trans-disciplinary research paradigm. Through a simplified hypothetical example we demonstrate the potential of such research. Data on community and civic elements will guide analysis of social change and adaptation towards more reflexively competent, sustainable resource governance. Spatial information systems will be a key tool in analysing and synthesising results, as well as broadening public understanding through computer visualisation as a communication vehicle.

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"to continously improve our understanding of the seas
around us and to translate this knowledge to benefit all"