Stability and Resilience—A Systematic Approach

Stability and resilience are two crucial concepts to the proper functioning and understanding of the behavior of both natural and man-made systems exposed to perturbations and change. However, although the two have covered a similar territory within dynamic systems, the terminology and applications differ significantly. This paper presents a critical analysis of the two concepts by first collating the wealth of modern stability concept literature within dynamics systems and then linking it to resilience thinking, defined as adaptation where the system has the ability to respond perturbations and change through passive and active feedback structures. A lumped mass and simple pendulum, two simple linear and nonlinear dynamic systems following a state-space approach from modern control systems theory, are used to support the analysis and application. The research findings reveal that the two overarching categories of engineering resilience and socio-ecological resilience (extended ecological resilience) are in fact a reinvention of a closed-loop system dynamic stability with different types of active feedback mechanisms. Additionally, structural stability describes some vital aspects of social–ecological resilience such as critical thresholds where, under change, a system loses the ability to return to the starting form or move to another suitable form through active feedback mechanisms or direct management actions.

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