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Controllability of complex networks for sustainable system dynamics
Citation:
Benavides, P., U. Diwekar, AND H. Cabezas. Controllability of complex networks for sustainable system dynamics. Journal of Complex Networks. Oxford University Press, Cary, NC, 3(4):566-583, (2015).
Impact/Purpose:
Many real systems such as supply chains or an ecosystems can represented by a network - a set of connected nodes. This work develops a mathematical theory that tells you how many of the nodes in the network have to be accessed in order to successfully manage the network. This has applications to supply chain management, ecosystem management and conservation, etc.
Description:
Successful implementation of sustainability ideas in ecosystem management requires a basic understanding of the often non-linear and non-intuitive relationships among different dimensions of sustainability, particularly the system-wide implications of human actions. This basic understanding further includes a sense of the time scale of possible future events and the limits of what is and is not likely to be possible. With this understanding, systematic approaches based on control theory can then be used to develop policy guidelines for the system. Therefore, controllability of the system is very important to determining long term sustainability of the system. An article Liu et al. (2011, Nature, 473, 167) presents a new analytical approach to study the controllability of complex systems. We apply this approach to three dynamic systems developed to study the sustainability of our planet. These three systems consist of an ecosystem based on wild and domesticated compartments: a simple economic model, an ecosystem model with an industrial system, and an integrated model involving the ecosystem, industrial systems, and energy producers. The goal is not to develop detailed predictions, but to explore the feasibility of general strategies for sustainability, and to establish scientific criteria which would indicate their likelihood of being successful. We argue that controllability of this system is necessary for its long-term sustainability, and we present our arguments in the light of previous studies of these systems.
