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Abstract This paper investigates toxic algal blooms (TABs) and their management as an example of a complex emerging contaminant (EC) problem through the lens of interconnected social, technical, ecological systems (SETS). We use mixed methods including analysis of a national survey of public drinking water systems and interviews with drinking water managers and state regulators. For the first time, we extend SETS to the drinking water context to advance a holistic understanding of the complexity of TABs as a problem for drinking water systems and identify specific intervention points to ease TABs management difficulty. We find that management challenges arise at the intersection of SET domains, and often coincide with circumstances where water managers and existing technologies are pushed outside of their traditional operating spheres or when new technologies are introduced creating cascading SET challenges. ECs that do not behave like traditional contaminants and pollutants require adapting social and technical systems to be responsive to these differences. Understanding how management difficulties arise within SET domains and their intersections will help drinking water managers and state regulators mitigate management difficulties in the future. These findings have implications for understanding and mitigating other EC management challenges as well. 

The unprecedented number of devastating disasters recently experienced in the United States is a clarion call to revisit how we understand our vulnerability in the face of global change, and what we are prepared to do about it. We focus on the case of Hurricane María’s impact in Puerto Rico to underscore five critical concerns in addressing vulnerability and adaptation planning: (i) vulnerability as a product of flows; (ii) how our beliefs about the capacities of ourselves and others affect local vulnerability; (iii) the role uncertainty, politics, and information access play in amplifying vulnerability and complicating adaptation; (iv) the need for a better distribution of risk and responsibility in adaptation; (v) and the challenge of seizing the opportunity of disasters for transformative change. These five issues of concern were particularly evident in the case of Puerto Rico where Hurricane María’s 155 mph winds exposed existing infrastructural vulnerabilities, institutional incapacities, and socio-economic disparities. We argue that addressing these issues requires fundamental shifts in how we prepare for environmental change and disasters in the 21st century. We discuss promising approaches that may assist researchers and practitioners in addressing some of the underlying drivers of vulnerability, stemming from cross-scalar dynamics, systemic interdependencies, and the politics and social relations associated with knowledge, decision-making and action. We argue that society needs to broach the difficult topic of the equity in the distribution of risk in society and the burden of adaptation. Addressing these challenges and response imperatives is a central task of this century; the time to act is now.