@article{EgliWeiseRadchuketal.2019, author = {Egli, Lukas and Weise, Hanna and Radchuk, Viktoriia and Seppelt, Ralf and Grimm, Volker}, title = {Exploring resilience with agent-based models: State of the art, knowledge gaps and recommendations for coping with multidimensionality}, series = {Ecological complexity}, volume = {40}, journal = {Ecological complexity}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {1476-945X}, doi = {10.1016/j.ecocom.2018.06.008}, pages = {7}, year = {2019}, abstract = {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 specific 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 different 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.}, language = {en} } @article{SchroederSeppelt2006, author = {Schr{\"o}der, Boris and Seppelt, Ralf}, title = {Analysis of pattern-process interactions based on landscape models - Overview, general concepts, and methodological issues}, series = {Ecological modelling : international journal on ecological modelling and engineering and systems ecolog}, volume = {199}, journal = {Ecological modelling : international journal on ecological modelling and engineering and systems ecolog}, number = {4}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0304-3800}, doi = {10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2006.05.036}, pages = {505 -- 516}, year = {2006}, abstract = {Pattern-process analysis is one of the main threads in landscape ecological research. It aims at understanding the complex relationships between ecological processes and landscape patterns, identifying the underlying mechanisms and deriving valid predictions for scenarios of landscape change and its consequences. Today, various studies cope with these tasks through so called "landscape modelling" approaches. They integrate different aspects of heterogeneous and dynamic landscapes and model different driving forces, often using both statistical and process-oriented techniques. We identify two main approaches to deal with the analysis of pattern-process interactions: the first starts with pattern detection, pattern description and pattern analysis, the second with process description, simulation and pattern generation. Focussing on the interplay between these two approaches, landscape analysis and landscape modelling will improve our understanding of pattern-process interactions. The comparison of simulated and observed pattern is a prerequisite for both approaches. Therefore, we identify a set of quantitative, robust, and reproducible methods for the analysis of spatiotemporal patterns that is a starting point for a standard toolbox for ecologists as major future challenge and suggest necessary further methodological developments. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{SeppeltSchroeder2006, author = {Seppelt, Ralf and Schr{\"o}der, Boris}, title = {Pattern and processes of dynamic mosaic landscapes}, series = {Ecological modelling : international journal on ecological modelling and engineering and systems ecolog}, volume = {199}, journal = {Ecological modelling : international journal on ecological modelling and engineering and systems ecolog}, number = {4}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0304-3800}, doi = {10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2006.06.011}, pages = {377 -- 378}, year = {2006}, language = {en} } @article{SeppeltMuellerSchroederetal.2009, author = {Seppelt, Ralf and Mueller, Felix and Schroeder, Boris and Volk, Martin}, title = {Challenges of simulating complex environmental systems at the landscape scale : a controversial dialogue between two cups of espresso}, issn = {0304-3800}, doi = {10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.09.009}, year = {2009}, abstract = {With the advancement of computational systems and the development of model integration concepts, complexity of environmental model systems increased. In contrast to that, theory and knowledge about>environmental systems as well as the capability for environmental systems analyses remained, to a large extent, unchanged. As a consequence, model conceptualization, data gathering, and validation, have faced new challenges that hardly can be tackled by modellers alone. In this discourse-like review, we argue that modelling with reliable simulations of human-environmental interactions necessitate linking modelling and simulation research much stronger to science fields such as landscape ecology, community ecology, eco-hydrology, etc. It thus becomes more and more important to identify the adequate degree of complexity in environmental models (which is not only a technical or methodological question), to ensure data availability, and to test model performance. Even equally important, providing problem specific answers to environmental problems using simulation tools requires addressing end-user and stakeholder requirements during early stages of problem development. In doing so, we avoid modelling and simulation as an end of its own.}, language = {en} } @article{SchulzSeppeltZeheetal.2006, author = {Schulz, K. and Seppelt, Ralf and Zehe, Erwin and Vogel, Hans-J{\"o}rg and Attinger, Sabine}, title = {Importance of spatial structures in advancing hydrological sciences}, doi = {10.1029/2005wr004301}, year = {2006}, abstract = {[1] Spatial patterns of land surface and subsurface characteristics often exert significant control over hydrological processes at many scales. Recognition of the dominant controls at the watershed scale, which is a prerequisite to successful prediction of system responses, will require significant progress in many different research areas. The development and improvement of techniques for mapping structures and spatiotemporal patterns using geophysical and remote sensing techniques would greatly benefit watershed science but still requires a significant synthesis effort. Effective descriptions of hydrological systems will also significantly benefit from new scaling and averaging techniques, from new mathematical description for spatial pattern/structures and their dynamics, and also from an understanding and quantification of structure and pattern-building processes in different compartments ( soils, rocks, and land surface) and at different scales. The advances that are needed to tackle these complex challenges could be greatly facilitated through the development of an interdisciplinary research framework that explores instrumentation, theory, and simulation components and that is implemented in a coordinated manner}, language = {en} }