Viability and Resilience of Complex Systems: Concepts, Methods and Case Studies from Ecology and Society (Understanding Complex Systems)

One common characteristic of a complex system is its ability to withstand major disturbances and the capacity to rebuild itself. Understanding how such systems demonstrate resilience by absorbing or recovering from major external perturbations requires both quantitative foundations and a multidisciplinary view of the topic. This book demonstrates how new methods can be used to identify the actions favouring the recovery from perturbations on a variety of examples including the dynamics of bacterial biofilms, grassland savannahs, language competition and Internet social networking sites. The reader is taken through an introduction to the idea of resilience and viability and shown the mathematical basis of the techniques used to analyse systems. The idea of individual or agent-based modelling of complex systems is introduced and related to analytically tractable approximations of such models. A set of case studies illustrates the use of the techniques in real applications, and the final section describes how one can use new software tools for carrying out the necessary calculations. The book is intended for a general scientific audience of readers from the natural and social sciences, although it requires some mathematics to gain a full understanding of the more theoretical chapters. It is an essential point of reference for those interested in the practical application of the concepts of resilience and viability One common characteristics of a complex system is its ability to withstand major disturbances and the capacity to rebuild itself. Understanding how such systems demonstrate resilience by absorbing or recovering from major external perturbations requires both quantitative foundations and a multidisciplinary view on the topic. This book demonstrates how new methods can be used to identify the actions favouring the recovery from perturbations. Examples discussed include bacterial biofilms resisting detachment, grassland savannahs recovering from fire, the dynamics of language competition and Internet social networking sites overcoming vandalism. The reader is taken through an introduction to the idea of resilience and viability and shown the mathematical basis of the techniques used to analyse systems. The idea of individual or agent-based modelling of complex systems is introduced and related to analytically tractable approximations of such models. A set of case studies illustrates the use of the techniques in real applications, and the final section describes how one can use new and elaborate software tools for carrying out the necessary calculations. The book is intended for a general scientific audience of readers from the natural and social sciences, yet requires some mathematics to gain a full understanding of the more theoretical chapters. It is an essential point of reference for those interested in the practical application of the concepts of resilience and viability Front Matter....Pages i-xii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 What Is Resilience? A Short Introduction....Pages 3-13 Defining Resilience Mathematically: From Attractors To Viability....Pages 15-36 Front Matter....Pages 37-37 Viability and Resilience in the Dynamics of Language Competition....Pages 39-73 Viable Web Communities: Two Case Studies....Pages 75-105 Bridging the Gap Between Computational Models and Viability Based Resilience in Savanna Ecosystems....Pages 107-130 Viability and Resilience of a Bacterial Biofilm Individual-Based Model....Pages 131-157 Front Matter....Pages 159-159 Approximating Viability Kernels and Resilience Values: Algorithms and Practical Issues Illustrated with KAVIAR Software....Pages 161-192 Geometric Robustness of Viability Kernels and Resilience Basins....Pages 193-218 Back Matter....Pages 219-221 This book covers new methods of identifying ways to help complex systems recover from perturbations. Examples discussed include bacterial biofilms resisting detachment, savannahs recovering from fire, and Internet social networking sites overcoming vandalism.