What is Adaptive Management?
Understanding and managing resources that are part of a complex, interrelated ecosystem is not something that can be achieved without a long-term process built around a continuous cycle of experimentation, evaluation, learning, and improvement over time. The ability to experiment and test hypotheses in a time frame that allows meaningful data to be gathered and evaluated is an important element for making sound resource management decisions.
An adaptive management approach is generally understood to be a systematic process for continually improving management practices over time by emphasizing learning through experimentation. Adaptive management also incorporates collaboration among stakeholders, managers, and scientists who are knowledgeable about the system being evaluated. The comprehensive, iterative, and collaborative nature of an adaptive management approach is why it was implemented as part of the long-term management strategy for refining operations of Glen Canyon Dam to improve downstream resources.
One of the most significant lessons learned from the years of scientific research and analysis that led to the Operation of Glen Canyon Dam Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is that there was no clear and concise understanding of the riverine resources of the Grand Canyon. The interrelationships between resources proved to be extremely complex. Over 14 years of scientific work went into completing the EIS, selecting a preferred alternative, and signing a Record of Decision (ROD). Throughout this process it became apparent that regardless of how much scientific research was done on alternative ways of operating Glen Canyon Dam, there would always be uncertainties and data gaps until the operations could be tested over time. While the EIS evaluated a range of possible alternatives for operating the dam, an element common to all of the alternatives considered was the creation and implementation of an adaptive management program.
The Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program (GCDAMP) was officially established in 1997, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in compliance with the Grand Canyon Protection Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-575), and the 1996 Record of Decision which initiated the process "whereby the effects of dam operations on downstream resources would be monitored and assessed." The implementation of the GCDAMP provided for flexibility in adapting the dam's operations in order to facilitate continued scientific research and monitoring while allowing the project purposes for which the dam was constructed to continue. As environmental experimentation and studies continue to take place, it is important to recognize that the Secretary must continue to operate Glen Canyon Dam to meet the purposes established by Congress in law.