Generating and Fostering Novelty

Managing social-ecological systems can be daunting because of numeric and dynamic complexity. These complexities present great uncertainties for scientists, policy makers, stakeholders, and other groups. When approaching complicated problems, there are often mismatches between problems and solutions. At least three caricatures are useful in demonstrating the mismatch between problem and solution sets [See ADDENDUM]. For simple problems such as making a meal, a cookbook or recipe approach suffices. Other classes of complex problems are amenable to engineering approaches. For example, building bridges, sending men to the moon, or constructing trustworthy aircraft not only rely on a combination of optimization and efficiency to deal with limited resources but also call for functional redundancy to maintain system stability and reliability. The class of environmental issues and problems discussed in this journal and other outlets is much more complex and subject to true uncertainty and surprise, indeed, much more like raising a child. We argue that this class of problems requires novel approaches, creative combinations of strategies, and the ability to adapt in a changing environment.