Science and Innovation    Linking science to management   Adaptive Management Cycle

The Adaptive Management Cycle (AMC) approach underpins the overall success of the Healthy Waterways Partnership. The five interconnected elements that make up the AMC approach - Learn, Plan, Do, Monitor and Evaluate - are applied rigorously to all work undertaken by the Partnership.

The essence of adaptive management is that action can seldom be postponed until we have 'enough' information to fully understand the situation. We need to act on the basis of the best available information at the time, and then monitor and evaluate the results to derive 'lessons learned' that will improve our response to the problem.

Not only does this lead to improved understanding of ways of dealing with resource management issues, it also provides the flexibility necessary for dealing with changing socio-economic or socio-ecological relationships.

The Partnership's adaptive management approach is supported by the combination of: 

• state-of-the-art decision support tools
• Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program
• high level of scientific expertise through the Scientific Expert Panel and its working groups
• the Partnership's regional coordination and consultation mechanisms.