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Landscape sustainability and the landscape ecology of institutions

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Abstract

Context

Landscape sustainability emerges from interactions between linked human and natural systems. Many of these interactions are mediated by institutions (e.g., rules, laws, customs, traditions), most of which are themselves spatially defined entities that both generate and respond to spatial variation in the landscape. However, the spatial dynamics of the interplay between institutions and landscape heterogeneity are poorly understood.

Objective

To define the landscape ecology of institutions as an emerging research field, providing a summary of key themes and frontiers.

Methods

We draw on existing theory in both landscape ecology and institutional analysis to explore the interface between landscape ecology and institutions in social-ecological systems.

Results

Three central themes in understanding landscape sustainability through an institutional lens include the role of landscape heterogeneity as a driver of institutions; the spatial properties of institutions as influences on ecological and socioeconomic processes; and the relationships between institutions and landscape resilience. Emerging frontiers for further research include understanding the roles of top-down vs bottom up processes (design vs. emergence); understanding landscapes as institutional filters; the role of landscapes in institutional development and change; and co-evolutionary dynamics between landscapes and institutions. We discuss each of these points in detail.

Conclusions

Spatially mediated feedbacks between landscape structure and institutions are poorly understood and critical for landscape sustainability. Further research in this area will depend heavily on generating data sets that describe the spatial properties of institutions and allow them to be analysed as landscape features.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Prof. Tiffany Morrison for her helpful comments on a previous draft of this manuscript. This work was supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under funding received from the National Science Foundation DBI-1639145; the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies; and a James S. McDonnell Foundation complexity scholar award to GSC.

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  1. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Townsville, 4811, Australia

    Graeme S. Cumming

  2. School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Graham Epstein

  3. Department of Political Science and Sustainable Coastal Systems Cluster, National Center for Integrated Coastal Research, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

    Graham Epstein

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Cumming, G.S., Epstein, G. Landscape sustainability and the landscape ecology of institutions. Landscape Ecol 35, 2613–2628 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-00989-8

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