Assessing the sustainability of socio-ecological systems requires understanding the interactions between numerous ecological, economic and social components. Models are often used to investigate how interactions shape system feedbacks and drive the complex dynamics at play in such systems. However, building these models is a non-trivial exercise, which often neglects stakeholder knowledge and perceptions. We adopted a participatory approach that relies on conducting workshops to engage stakeholders into the development of qualitative models of system feedback. This type of participatory qualitative modelling is well suited to address the complexity of socio-ecological systems in a holistic manner, identify key stakes and feedbacks, and predict responses to perturbations. We use this approach to investigate the factors that condition sustainability of the socio-ecological system associated with shellfish aquaculture in the Normand-Breton Gulf in France. Six region-specific workshops were organised with shellfish producers, managers and other stakeholders to identify and describe key components, interactions and pressures that contribute to overall socio-ecological dynamics. Differences and commonalities in system perceptions were identified across the different regions and focus groups. We reconciled stakeholder-specific discrepancies in model structure into a synthetic representation that conciliates alternative views of the system. Next, we predicted how the system might respond to alternative scenarios of change. Overall, our participatory qualitative modelling exercise identified key drivers of the system under study that constitute effective management levers to maintain system sustainability. For instance, low social acceptability of the aquaculture industry generally appears to be a major constraint on the sustainability of shellfish aquaculture in the Normand-Breton Gulf, while reducing rearing density appears to be a key driver of sustainability.

中文翻译：

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用于评估沿海社会生态系统可持续性的参与式定性模型

评估社会生态系统的可持续性需要了解众多生态、经济和社会组成部分之间的相互作用。模型通常用于研究相互作用如何塑造系统反馈并驱动在此类系统中发挥作用的复杂动态。然而，构建这些模型并非易事，往往会忽略利益相关者的知识和看法。我们采用了一种参与式方法，该方法依赖于举办研讨会，让利益相关者参与系统反馈定性模型的开发。这种类型的参与式定性建模非常适合以整体方式解决社会生态系统的复杂性，确定关键风险和反馈，并预测对扰动的响应。我们使用这种方法来研究影响法国诺曼德-布列塔尼湾贝类养殖相关社会生态系统可持续性的因素。与贝类生产者、管理人员和其他利益相关者组织了六个特定区域的研讨会，以确定和描述有助于整体社会生态动态的关键组成部分、相互作用和压力。在不同地区和焦点小组中确定了系统认知的差异和共性。我们将模型结构中特定于利益相关者的差异调和成一个综合表示，以协调系统的替代视图。接下来，我们预测了系统可能如何响应其他变化场景。全面的，我们的参与式定性建模练习确定了所研究系统的关键驱动因素，这些驱动因素构成了维持系统可持续性的有效管理杠杆。例如，水产养殖业的低社会接受度似乎是诺曼德-布列塔尼湾贝类养殖可持续性的主要制约因素，而降低养殖密度似乎是可持续性的关键驱动因素。