Levine, J. 2004. Adaptive Management in River Restoration: Theory vs. Practice in Western North America

A student at UC Berkeley, Jessie Levine, has reviewed river restoration projects that have applied adaptive management concepts. Levine finds that the benefits of adaptive management have yet to be realized. The concept is still moving from idea to practice. Adaptive management also struggles to distinguish itself from trial and error learning, and practictioners often confuse the concepts. In its purist form, "active adaptive management" are deliberate experiments where managers test a range of hypothesis about how a system works (she sites Walters and Hilborn 1978 & Walters and Holling 1990).

Her review of restoration projects shows that only 3 of 10 projects met the stringent definition of adaptive management. Plus, they were expensive, ranging from $2.5 million to $12 million USD a year. In addition, there appears to be consensus that to gather valuable information, the experiements needed to last for several years or decades.

Levine, J. 2004. Adaptive management in river restoration: theory vs. practice in western North America. Water Resource Center Archives. UC Berkeley. [Available online: http://repositories.cdlib.org/wrca/restoration/levine/]