About the project
System resilience is the ability to buffer shocks, such as extreme weather events, war, economic disruption, or political regime shifts (1). However, rather than view shocks as purely negative phenomena, understanding how systems respond to them can provide valuable insights that can help enhance resilience to more severe shocks in the future (e.g. climate change). Over recent times the UK fishing industry has experienced a range of systemic shocks that have included changes in regulatory regime and trading arrangements (Brexit), modified supply and demand (COVID-19) (2), and threats to profitability and livelihoods (fuel crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, 3). From a systems perspective, these interacting events can have both negative and positive consequence for the marine fisheries resource operating through trade-offs and synergies. Declines in activity can have negative impacts on the fishers over the short term while allowing stocks an opportunity to recover to provide longer-term benefits. This project will use novel interdisciplinary methods that combine remote sensing, machine learning, and economic modelling to quantify the response of the fishing industry and fish stocks to systemic shocks. This will facilitate greater understanding of how resources may be more sustainably managed in the face of future threats.
For full project details visit the Inspire project page.
Supervisors:
- Professor Paul Kemp (University of Southampton)
- Professor Jon Hare (University of Southampton)
