Keywords
self-organization, agent-based modelling, forest succession model
Start Date
1-7-2004 12:00 AM
Abstract
Managing the numerous and interrelated processes between man and nature in order to userenewable resources in a sustainable way is confronted with conflicting objectives, external effects, complexinterdependencies, uncertainty and other features that make it nearly impossible to come to unambiguousoptimal decisions. Self-organization in socio-economic and ecological systems - the process of structuring asystem by the elements of the system themselves without hierarchical or external control - is often the reasonfor ambiguity and uncertainty. Adaptive management is an approach to deal with these challenges. Thisnatural resource management method is permanently monitoring both socio-economic and ecological systemsin order to be able to react rapidly on any development pushing the systems into an undesired direction.Understanding and simulating the underlying self-organization processes helps to make the adaptivemanagement of renewable resources both more effective and more efficient. In this paper we present a simpleconceptual model of self-organization in socio-economic and ecological systems to understand better theireffects on the interrelations between them, applied to the special case of forestry.
Modelling Self-Organization Processes in Socio- Economic and Ecological Systems for Supporting the Adaptive Management of Forests
Managing the numerous and interrelated processes between man and nature in order to userenewable resources in a sustainable way is confronted with conflicting objectives, external effects, complexinterdependencies, uncertainty and other features that make it nearly impossible to come to unambiguousoptimal decisions. Self-organization in socio-economic and ecological systems - the process of structuring asystem by the elements of the system themselves without hierarchical or external control - is often the reasonfor ambiguity and uncertainty. Adaptive management is an approach to deal with these challenges. Thisnatural resource management method is permanently monitoring both socio-economic and ecological systemsin order to be able to react rapidly on any development pushing the systems into an undesired direction.Understanding and simulating the underlying self-organization processes helps to make the adaptivemanagement of renewable resources both more effective and more efficient. In this paper we present a simpleconceptual model of self-organization in socio-economic and ecological systems to understand better theireffects on the interrelations between them, applied to the special case of forestry.
