The paper discusses the concepts of resilience, adaptability, and transformability in social-ecological systems (SESs). Resilience refers to a system's ability to absorb disturbance and reorganize while maintaining its function, structure, identity, and feedbacks. It has four components: latitude, resistance, precariousness, and panarchy. Adaptability is the capacity of actors in the system to influence resilience, particularly through managing the system's trajectory, stability landscape, or cross-scale interactions. Transformability is the ability to create a fundamentally new system when existing structures become untenable. The paper emphasizes the importance of these concepts for sustainability science, moving away from the traditional focus on optimal states and maximum sustainable yield (MSY) to resilience analysis, adaptive resource management, and adaptive governance. It highlights the need to consider SESs as complex, multi-scale systems with interactions across different scales, leading to the concept of panarchy. The paper also discusses the dynamics of SESs through the metaphor of adaptive cycles, which include growth and exploitation, conservation, collapse and release, and reorganization. These cycles illustrate the unpredictable nature of SESs and the importance of managing resilience and transformability to avoid undesirable outcomes. The paper provides examples of SESs, such as the Everglades and the Wisconsin Northern Highlands Lake District, to illustrate how resilience, adaptability, and transformability interact. It also discusses the challenges of managing SESs, including the difficulty of defining these concepts precisely and the need for context-specific strategies. The paper concludes that sustainability strategies must be context-dependent and flexible, emphasizing the importance of resilience analysis, adaptive management, and adaptive governance to address the complexities of SESs. It also highlights the need for a better scientific basis for sustainable development, moving beyond traditional approaches to incorporate the concepts of resilience, adaptability, and transformability.The paper discusses the concepts of resilience, adaptability, and transformability in social-ecological systems (SESs). Resilience refers to a system's ability to absorb disturbance and reorganize while maintaining its function, structure, identity, and feedbacks. It has four components: latitude, resistance, precariousness, and panarchy. Adaptability is the capacity of actors in the system to influence resilience, particularly through managing the system's trajectory, stability landscape, or cross-scale interactions. Transformability is the ability to create a fundamentally new system when existing structures become untenable. The paper emphasizes the importance of these concepts for sustainability science, moving away from the traditional focus on optimal states and maximum sustainable yield (MSY) to resilience analysis, adaptive resource management, and adaptive governance. It highlights the need to consider SESs as complex, multi-scale systems with interactions across different scales, leading to the concept of panarchy. The paper also discusses the dynamics of SESs through the metaphor of adaptive cycles, which include growth and exploitation, conservation, collapse and release, and reorganization. These cycles illustrate the unpredictable nature of SESs and the importance of managing resilience and transformability to avoid undesirable outcomes. The paper provides examples of SESs, such as the Everglades and the Wisconsin Northern Highlands Lake District, to illustrate how resilience, adaptability, and transformability interact. It also discusses the challenges of managing SESs, including the difficulty of defining these concepts precisely and the need for context-specific strategies. The paper concludes that sustainability strategies must be context-dependent and flexible, emphasizing the importance of resilience analysis, adaptive management, and adaptive governance to address the complexities of SESs. It also highlights the need for a better scientific basis for sustainable development, moving beyond traditional approaches to incorporate the concepts of resilience, adaptability, and transformability.