Guided transformations for communities facing social and ecological change

Communities and their surrounding landscapes are intricately interconnected. This is evident in the Intermountain West of the United States of America, where large cities sit within vast landscapes otherwise containing small rural communities with farm, forest, and rangeland. Climate change and other stresses increase the tensions along the gradient of urban to rural communities and landscapes, and theoretical frameworks are needed to conceptualize regime shifts within these social-ecological systems. We propose a framework called Guided Transformation (GT) that translates new knowledge into action by incorporating diverse perspectives and values that prioritize community and environmental well-being. Guided Transformation combines elements from social, ecological, and technological systems (SETS) theory, resilience theory, and sustainability transitions research. In this manuscript, we outline the GT framework and its relationship to related theory and literature, and we then provide three case studies that demonstrate the application of the GT framework. The first case study is in the upper Rio Grande watershed in New Mexico, where innovative governance strategies are addressing the challenge of wildfire and watershed protection. The second is in eastern Washington and the Yakima Basin, where drought drove innovation in the form of an integrated water management plan that is now helping to meet the needs of both farmers and fish in the basin. In the final case study, we discuss work on the Navajo Nation addressing food, energy, and water security and Indigenous sovereignty through solar greenhouse technology.