Chesapeake Adaptive Management Model

About Adaptive Management

According to the Unified Federal Policy for a Watershed Approach to Federal Land and Resource Management (Federal Register 65, no. 202, October 18, 2000, p. 62571), “Adaptive management is a type of natural resource management in which decisions are made as part of an ongoing science-based process. Adaptive management involves testing, monitoring, and evaluating applied strategies, and incorporating new knowledge into management approaches that are based on scientific findings and the needs of society. Results are used to modify management policy, strategies, and practices.”

Most descriptions of adaptive management include common characteristics:

• An iterative, unified planning process that supports continual improvement.
• Emphasis on learning by doing and on experimentation to develop solutions.
• Broad stakeholder participation.
• Development of cross-sector analysis to effectively allocate resources.
• Integrated, comprehensive information management.
• Cooperation and transparency in resource planning.

CBP Use of Adaptive Management

In reviewing various adaptive management models, CBP partners found that the program possessed many essential components of such a system, but lacked a single set of strategies for achieving program goals, a comprehensive activity plan, and a framework to organize these parts into a cohesive whole. To address this gap, CBP partners adapted Kaplan and Norton’s (2008) Five-stage Model of Adaptive Management (“Mastering the Management System,” Harvard Business Review, January 2008, pp. 63-77.) to CBP’s specific needs and operations.

This newly designed CBP process establishes strong relationships between strategy and operations and fosters continual improvement of both Bay implementation activities and CBP’s organizational performance. The cycle of active strategy development, planning, implementation, and evaluation is applied to all areas of CBP activity so that the organization itself, not only individual partners or partners engaged in on-the-ground implementation, will learn and change based on the outputs of the adaptive management process.