Framing resilience to manage complex environmental systems

The significant challenges of managing complex environmental systems in a changing world are widely acknowledged. There are widespread calls for transformation in our approach and for the adoption of more holistic perspectives. In this paper, we explore the concept of “resilience” within a system dynamics framework as an attractive and appropriate conceptual approach for this problem. We link this to the evaluation and selection of adaptation pathways and transitions within the constraints of a “safe operating space,” recognizing planetary boundaries as well as operational and sectoral constraints. We discuss the relative merits of using quantitative modeling to explore the evolution of individual system state functions versus the use of suites of measures that aim to characterize and track the overall resilience of complex environmental systems. Using national and global examples, we demonstrate how such a resilience-based approach can be made operational, which is a fundamental requirement for wider adoption.