Reflections of two systems ecologists on modelling coupled human and natural (socio-ecological, socio-environmental) systems

Abstract

Systems ecology emerged as a discipline in the 1960's as ecologists identified the “systems approach” as a useful method for addressing problems dealing with complex systems. Today systems ecologists are interacting increasingly with physical and social scientists to study coupled human and natural (socio-ecological, socio-environmental) systems (SES). Our premise is that modellers of SES, regardless of their disciplinary background, in all share common roots in General Systems Theory (GST). In support of this premise, we offer our idiosyncratic epistemology of SES modelling and reflect upon some of our personal experiences collaborating with social scientists and physical scientists to model SES. We then describe two theoretical schemes for the unification of all knowledge proposed by scientists with different disciplinary backgrounds, one a half century after the other, and place both within the context of GST. We suggest that “the path forward” for multi-disciplinary SES modelling teams is to “look backward” toward their common roots in GST to find points of mutual familiarity from which scientifically productive conversations can begin. We further suggest that to suppose a general theoretical SES framework would contain a degree of specificity suitable for application to any particular real-world problem is folly. Rather, a “general theoretical framework” should connote a common template for the construction of a “spectrum” of theories, each of which, in turn, would provide a guide for developing SES models embodying the appropriate mix of generality and content for the problem at hand. For us, GST has provided such a framework.