Mr. Bowker will discuss his work at the United States Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (USIECR) and present an overview of newly emerging environmental management approaches. Impacts from potential future climate change, economic shifts, and demographic evolution result in a high degree of uncertainty as to the best means to manage and sustain our natural resource base. Changes such as rising sea level and resulting changes in groundwater and flood plain conditions, and shrinking water availability will require a much closer connection among technology, engineering, and social behavior to maintain quality of life standards. It has been found that working from a ‘systems’ perspective and using physical watersheds as organizing units shows great promise to shift our management policies from a procedure-based approach to an integrative and process-based approach, which is more conducive to adapt and address the far-ranging suite of potential environmental changes as they occur.
