The Kansas City, Missouri Smart Sewer Program has successfully implemented an adaptive management approach to cost-effectively reduce sewer overflows. This approach was implemented under the guidance of the third Consent Decree modification, which mandates the level of sewer overflow reduction. This approach includes iterative decision-making, continuous monitoring and flexible strategies to optimize environmental outcomes while managing costs. The adaptive management framework integrates system performance and past project data into an iterative planning, implementation, monitoring and analysis cycle. This process enables cost-effective decision-making aligned with Consent Decree compliance by managing the uncertainties in sewer system data and the interdependency of proposed project outcomes. The Smart Sewer Program adopted this approach in response to financial challenges and environmental requirements, resulting in key modifications to its original Overflow Control Plan projects. The adaptive management approach, enabled by the third Consent Decree modification, has proven pivotal in optimizing project performance, reducing costs and protecting vulnerable populations. By leveraging the adaptive management approach, Kansas City has reduced program expenses by hundreds of millions of dollars while aligning with Environmental Protection Agency (n.d.) environmental justice goals. Key project modification examples from the program presented in this article illustrate the effectiveness of adaptive management in achieving better outcomes. The first example showcases a project substitution. In this example, green infrastructure replaced a proposed relief sewer project, resulting in a more cost-effective solution with enhanced overflow reduction and environmental justice benefits. The second example involves project augmentation with creek separation, resolving double-counted sewer overflows, and significantly reducing annual overflow volume at minimal cost. A third example demonstrates project modification for a City project that was not a part of the Smart Sewer Program, where alternative gate configurations increased overflow capture without additional costs, potentially eliminating the need for a costly deep tunnel project. This article demonstrates the potential of an adaptive management approach for urban wastewater management programs, offering a replicable model for other municipalities. The Kansas City Smart Sewer Program example demonstrates how adaptive management can drive cost savings, enhance environmental outcomes and ensure regulatory compliance for a Consent Decree.

Wetlands in hypersaline environments are especially vulnerable to loss and degradation, as increasing coastal urbanization and climate change rapidly exacerbate freshwater supply stressors. Hypersaline wetlands pose unique management challenges that require innovative restoration perspectives and approaches that consider complex local and regional socioecological dynamics. In part, this challenge stems from multiple co-occurring stressors and anthropogenic alterations, including estuary mouth closure and freshwater diversions at the catchment scale. In this article, we discuss challenges and opportunities in the restoration of hypersaline coastal wetland systems, including management of freshwater inflow, shoreline modification, the occurrence of concurrent or sequential stressors, and the knowledge and values of stakeholders and Indigenous peoples. Areas needing additional research and integration into practice are described, and paths forward in adaptive management are discussed. There is a broad need for actionable research on adaptively managing hypersaline wetlands, where outputs will enhance the sustainability and effectiveness of future restoration efforts. Applying a collaborative approach that integrates best practices across a diversity of socio-ecological settings will have global benefits for the effective management of hypersaline coastal wetlands.

With climate change and urbanization, city planners and developers have increasing interest and practice in constructing, restoring, or incorporating wetlands as forms of green infrastructure to maintain water-related ecosystem services (WES). We reviewed studies that valued in functional or monetary units the water regulation and purification services of urban wetlands around the globe. We used the adaptive management cycle (AMC) as a heuristic to determine the step that a study would represent in the AMC, the connections between the cycle steps that were used or considered, and the stakeholders involved. Additionally, we identified the social, ecological, and/or technological dimension(s) of the environmental stressors and management strategies described by study authors. While use-inspired research on WES occurs throughout the globe, most studies serve to singularly assess problems or monitor urban wetlands, consider or use no connectors between steps, and involve no stakeholder groups. Both stressors and strategies were overwhelmingly multidimensional, with the social dimension represented in the majority of both. We highlight studies that successfully interfaced with cities across multiple steps, connectors, engaged stakeholder groups, and disseminated findings and skills to stakeholder groups. True use-inspired research should explicitly involve management systems that are used by city stakeholders and propose multidimensional solutions.

Conservation monitoring is paramount for the gathering of information on species and populations in need of conservation actions. However, monitoring of the mountain bongo Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci, a Critically Endangered antelope endemic to Kenya, has hitherto been limited to surveillance (i.e. focused on persistence of the species in particular areas), thus limiting the information that could be retrieved on the status and trends of these populations. Using a newly developed identification system, we implemented robust design mark–recapture using existing camera-trap records of four wild subpopulations of the bongo. We provide data on sex and age structure and the first estimates of population size in the wild. Males and calves seem to be suffering higher mortality than females, and only two of the four monitored populations include adults of both sexes and calves. The combined size of these two breeding populations is estimated to be 29–50. Our findings confirm the critical situation of the mountain bongo in the wild and highlight the need for conservation actions to reinforce the wild populations for the long-term conservation of this antelope.

In this case study, we used point mapping data to evaluate long-term treatment of invasive tree-of-heaven [Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle]. This study at the Buffalo National River included 21 project areas ranging in size from 0.02 to 11.3 ha and spanned 5 to 8 yr depending on the site. The control techniques varied depending on the year and included the application of herbicide, which also varied over the course of the study and included imazapyr, triclopyr, and triclopyr+fluroxypyr. Treatments during the first year reduced local A. altissima populations by an average of 66%. Long-term repeated treatments led to decreases of at least 90% in 70% of the project areas and at least 73% in 95% of the project areas. Only one project area was found to support no plants during the final treatment year. Ailanthus altissima increased at most project areas during an unusually wet year and was more likely to increase than decrease in intervals >1 yr with no treatment. Over the temporal and spatial scales of this case study, we observed high levels of control that will likely meet the specified levels and ecological benefits required in many similar efforts. Land managers must, however, make a long-term commitment of resources to achieve lasting control of this invasive species.

Passive acoustic monitoring is rapidly gaining recognition as a practical, affordable and robust tool for measuring gun hunting levels within protected areas, and consequently for its potential to evaluate anti-poaching patrols’ effectiveness based on outcome (i.e., change in hunting pressure) rather than effort (e.g., kilometres patrolled) or output (e.g., arrests). However, there has been no report to date of a protected area successfully using an acoustic grid to explore baseline levels of gun hunting activity, adapting its patrols in response to the evidence extracted from the acoustic data and then evaluating the effectiveness of the new patrol strategy. We report here such a case in Cameroon’s Korup National Park, where anti-poaching patrol effort was markedly increased in the 2015–2016 Christmas/New Year holiday season to curb the annual peak in gunshots recorded by a 12-sensor acoustic grid in the same period during the previous 2 years. Despite a three- to five-fold increase in patrol days, distance and area covered, the desired outcome – lower gun hunting activity – was not achieved under the new patrol scheme. The findings emphasize the need for adaptive wildlife law enforcement and how passive acoustic monitoring can help attain this goal, and they warn about the risks of using effort-based metrics of anti-poaching strategies as a surrogate for desired outcomes. We propose ways of increasing protected areas’ capacity to adopt acoustic grids as a law enforcement monitoring tool.

Radnor Lake State Natural Area in Nashville, TN, has cedar glades that contain the endangered perennial herb wild dill [Perideridia americana (Nutt. ex DC.) Rchb.] and the invasive shrub Amur honeysuckle [Lonicera maackii (Rupr.) Herder]. This research examined whether L. maackii treatment in the Radnor Lake State Natural Area cedar glades is followed by an increase in P. americana plants. A grid of 60 adjacent 2 m by 4 m plots was placed in five cedar glades to encompass the P. americana population. With great care to protect P. americana, the annual treatment for L. maackii was to pull plants ≤1-m tall from the ground; and to cut stems >1-m tall and then treat the stumps with glyphosate. The t-tests of means for the log natural of the number of plants in the 60 plots (significance level of P-value = 0.05) were used to compare pretreatment L. maackii and P. americana counts with posttreatment counts in 2018 and P. americana counts at leaf out and flowering in 2018. The L. maackii population was significantly smaller (P-value < 0.001) in 2018 than pretreatment at all five sites. When pretreatment in 2014 and 2015 was compared with posttreatment in 2018 for the P. americana populations, the increases were significant at the Cheek, Harris 2, Hideaway, and Norfleet sites, but the increase at East Hall Farm was not significant. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmermann) trampling was the explanation given for the decreases in P. americana from leaf out to flowering at all five sites in 2018. Browsing was evident only at Hideaway, which had a greater loss for P. americana from leaf out to flowering in 2018 than the combined losses for the Cheek, East Hall Farm, Harris 2, and Norfleet sites. The research informed the creation of adaptive management decisions regarding monitoring and treatment of the invasive species L. maackii for an endangered species.

There is growing evidence on the extent to which projected changes in climate, including increases in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, higher temperatures, changes in amount, seasonality and variability of precipitation and increases in extreme weather events, may affect future availability of ruminant animal products. Elements of climate change affect livestock systems through direct impacts on animal physiology, behaviour, production and welfare and indirectly through feed availability, composition and quality. These impacts may be positive or negative and will vary across geographical regions, animal species and with adaptive capacity. However, adverse impacts are likely to be greatest in tropical and sub-tropical regions including countries where both current need and future growth in demand for nutrition is greatest. The complexity of effects means that effective adaptation strategies to mitigate negative impacts on ruminant production systems to climate changes will need to be multi-dimensional. Although predictions of future climate, particularly on regional and local scales, have a degree of uncertainty, adaptation planning is starting to be informed by changes already being observed and adjustments in management being made by farmers to maintain productivity and profitability. Regional case studies illustrate the benefits and limitations of adaptive management: potential mitigation through heightened awareness of heat stress-related mortality in French cattle; evidence of a drop in milk production in south-eastern Australian dairies during a January 2014 heat wave, from the theoretical potential of 53% to only 10% across the state; and limitations in response options to climate-induced thermal, nutritional and water stress for sheep and goat farmers in northern Ethiopia. Review of research on climate change impacts on ruminant livestock and effective adaptation together with evidence of practical adaptive management provide insights into potential strategies and gaps in knowledge to address challenges and improve future decisions.

Ecological management of invasive weeds will require substantial increases in the application of ecological knowledge and its integration with other forms of knowledge. To enable these increases, we call for purposeful development of knowledge networks in which new knowledge about a complex situation is created by the interaction of different forms of knowledge. We believe that invasive-plant management must be based on a fine-tuning of managed ecosystems, in which operations (e.g., farm activities) are comprehensively adjusted to confront invasives with a wide array of control measures. Land managers must have the primary role in this tuning process because of their holistic knowledge of the ecosystems they manage. Additionally, such ecological management of invasives will require support from new or improved practices in many relevant sectors, e.g., involving extension workers, farm advisors, and researchers of many sorts. Knowledge networks facilitate the creation, application, and integration of knowledge that will be needed to support ecological invasive-plant management. Worldwide, knowledge networks are under very active development as promising solutions to ecological-management challenges. To develop, networks require proactive organization and facilitation. We have developed an experimental knowledge network to facilitate ecological management of field-crop weeds on the basis of collaborative learning groups that help farmers and other professionals develop necessary knowledge. These groups have been favorably evaluated by most participants, and this article describes the results of our project, including our insights into development of such networks.

Invasive weed management in wildland areas is often challenging due to the need to protect and preserve the integrity of natural ecosystems. Russian knapweed is an aggressive, deep-rooted, creeping perennial forb that was first identified as a problematic species in Dinosaur National Monument in 1977. From 2002 to 2005, extensive nonnative plant inventories were conducted in portions of the monument. Results were used to develop and implement an aggressive weed management program beginning in 2005. Emphasis was placed on reducing Russian knapweed infestations around Josie's Ranch in the Cub Creek Watershed. Several other species were targeted as well. In 2010, a reinventory was conducted in selected areas to evaluate how implemented management strategies affected the overall distribution and abundance of targeted species on the landscape. Comparisons between inventories indicate that management strategies were successful in reducing the total infested area of Russian knapweed by 79%. Treatments used for other targeted species also appear to have been effective in reducing their overall distribution and abundance on the landscape. In addition, the reinventory identified several new species with the potential to become problematic in the area. Although this case study documents the substantial progress that has been made at Dinosaur National Monument toward obtaining specific weed management objectives, it more importantly illustrates the process and benefits of an adaptive approach in sustaining long-term invasive plant species management efforts.

The miconia (Miconia calvescens) invasion of the East Maui Watershed (EMW) started from a single introduction over 40 yr ago, establishing a nascent patch network spread across 20,000 ha. In 2012, an accelerated intervention strategy was implemented utilizing the Herbicide Ballistic Technology (HBT) platform in a Hughes 500D helicopter to reduce target densities of seven nascent patches in the EMW. In a 14-mo period, a total of 48 interventions eliminated 4,029 miconia targets, with an estimated 33% increase in operations and 168% increase in recorded targets relative to the adjusted means from 2005 to 2011 data (prior to HBT adoption). This sequence of interventions covered a total net area of 1,138 ha, creating a field mosaic of overlapping search coverage (saturation) for each patch (four to eight interventions per patch). Target density reduction for each patch fit exponential decay functions (R 2 > 0.88, P < 0.05), with a majority of the target interventions spatially assigned to the highest saturation fields. The progressive decay in target density led to concomitant reductions in search efficiency (min ha−1) and herbicide use rate (grams ae ha−1) in subsequent interventions. Mean detection efficacy (± SE) between overlapping interventions (n = 41) was 0.62 ± 0.03, matching closely with the probability of detection for a random search operation and verifying imperfect (albeit precise) detection. The HBT platform increases the value of aerial surveillance operations with 98% efficacy in target elimination. Applying coverage saturation with an accelerated intervention schedule to known patch locations is an adaptive process for compensating imperfect detection and building intelligence with spatial and temporal relevance to the next operation.