The management of complex sociobiophysical systems: Ecosystem-based management and the Chesapeake Bay Program

The field of environmental planning and management exists along the boundary between two complex systems: the ecological and the human socio-economic. Complex systems theory is providing powerful heuristics for the management of human activities within such systems.;Current environmental management literature points to three themes or requirements for a systems-based or ecosystem-based approach to planning and management within complex sociobiophysical systems: systems-based science, ethical governance and adaptive management. These themes provide a framework for the integration of some of the most recent complexity theory-based planning and management heuristics in order to produce a new conceptual, ideal for ecosystem-based management. This conceptual ideal is compared to an existing case example of adaptive, ecosystem-based management so that insights can be drawn.;The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), one of North-America's most studied and well-recognized examples of ecosystem-based management is examined and compared to the conceptual ideal developed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).