At the broadest conceptual level this is a conceptual map.

IT is the starting point for conducting the study of SESs and presents a simple, very general, nested framework.

Must at least identify a focal level (a small lake, a major watershed, the Great Lakes, the Pacific Ocean…..)

And the larger and smaller systems it affects or affect it.

At this broad level, one can begin to organize an analysis of how attributes of a resource system (e.g., fishery, lake, grazing area), the resource units produced by that system (e.g., fish, water, fodder), the users of that system, and

the governance system jointly affect (and are indirectly affected through feedback from) the patterns of interactions and resulting outcomes achieved at a particular time and place and how these may affect and be affected by larger or smaller socioeconomic and political settings in which they are embedded as well as by a larger or smaller SES.