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TOWARDS A SUSTAINABILITY INDEX USING INFORMATION THEORY
Citation:
Pawlowski**, C. W., B. D. Fath**, A Mayer**, AND H C. Cabezas*. TOWARDS A SUSTAINABILITY INDEX USING INFORMATION THEORY. Presented at 2002 Dubrovnik Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water & Environmental Systems, Dubrovnik, BC, CANADA, June 02 - 07, 2002.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
We explore the use of Fisher Information as a basis for an index of sustainability. Sustainability of an ecosystem refers to the robustness of a preferred dynamic regime to human and natural disturbances. Ecosystems under perturbations of varying regularity and intensity can either remain within the current regime or transition into the neighborhood of a regime with different (viz. less desirable) characteristics. The Fisher Information Index we develop is based on the probablility of finding the system in a particular state. We apply the index to a ten-compartment food web model with five functional groups: detritus, primary producers, herbivores, carnivores, and an omnivore. Fisher Information is shown to be sensitive to transients in model generated data. Such transients can be indicative of a transition to a new dynamic regime. Early detection of transitions to undesirable regimes may permit management intervention.