Exploring resilience with agent-based models: State of the art, knowledge gaps and recommendations for coping with multidimensionality

Egli, Lukas; Weise, Hanna; Radchuk, Viktoriia; SEPPELT, Ralf; Grimm, Volker

doi:10.1016/j.ecocom.2018.06.008

Article (Scientific journals)

Exploring resilience with agent-based models: State of the art, knowledge gaps and recommendations for coping with multidimensionality

Egli, Lukas; Weise, Hanna; Radchuk, Viktoriia et al.

2019 • In Ecological Complexity, 40, p. 1476945X18301089

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

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https://hdl.handle.net/10993/66284

DOI
10.1016/j.ecocom.2018.06.008

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Abstract :

[en] Anthropogenic pressures increasingly alter natural systems. Therefore, understanding the resilience of agent-based complex systems such as ecosystems, i.e. their ability to absorb these pressures and sustain their functioning and services, is a major challenge. However, the mechanisms underlying resilience are still poorly understood. A main reason for this is the multidimensionality of both resilience, embracing the three fundamental stability properties recovery, resistance and persistence, and of the specic situations for which stability properties can be assessed. Agent-based models (ABM) complement empirical research which is, for logistic reasons, limited in coping with these multiple dimensions. Besides their ability to integrate multidimensionality through extensive manipulation in a fully controlled system, ABMs can capture the emergence of system resilience from individual interactions and feedbacks across di erent levels of organization. To assess the extent to which this potential of ABMs has already been exploited, we reviewed the state of the art in exploring resilience and its multidimensionality in ecological and socio-ecological systems with ABMs. We found that the potential of ABMs is not utilized in most models, as they typically focus on a single dimension of resilience by using variability as a proxy for persistence, and are limited to one reference state, disturbance type and scale. Moreover, only few studies explicitly test the ability of different mechanisms to support resilience. To overcome these limitations, we recommend to simultaneously assess multiple stability properties for different situations and under consideration of the mechanisms that are hypothesised to render a system resilient. This will help us to better exploit the potential of ABMs to understand and quantify resilience mechanisms, and hence support solving real-world problems related to the resilience of agent-based complex systems.

Research center :

Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems (LCSES)

Disciplines :

Mathematics
Human geography & demography
Environmental sciences & ecology

Author, co-author :

Egli, Lukas

Weise, Hanna

Radchuk, Viktoriia

SEPPELT, Ralf ; University of Luxembourg > Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems (LCSES)

Grimm, Volker

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Exploring resilience with agent-based models: State of the art, knowledge gaps and recommendations for coping with multidimensionality

Publication date :

2019

Journal title :

Ecological Complexity

ISSN :

1476-945X

Publisher :

Elsevier, Nl

Volume :

Pages :

S1476945X18301089

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1476945X18301089

Available on ORBilu :

since 09 November 2025

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