Resilience is the distance between the system and its nearest threshold
A system is in its most stable state when it is equally distant from all thresholds that, if crossed, would lead to a different stable state (or regime).
One of the central ideas of resilience thinking is that social-ecological systems have multiple regimes (stable states) that are separated by thresholds. The metaphor connected with this model is a ball in a basin … The ball is the current state of the social-ecological system, and the basin is the set of possible states the system can be in and still have the same structure and function. Beyond some limit (the edge of the basin), the feedbacks that drive the system change and the system tends toward a different equilibrium. The system in this new basin has a different structure and function. The system (the ball) is said to have crossed a threshold into a new basin of attraction. In this metaphor, resilience is all about the distance between the ball and the edge (threshold) of the basin, and the size and shape of the basin of attraction.[1]
See also:
- Resilience is the capacity to absorb shocks and retain function
- Resilient systems require both specified and general resilience
- Proximity to a threshold decreases the shock required to cross it
Resilience Thinking – Walker and Salt (2012), ch. 2, § “The Building Blocks of Resilience Thinking.” ↩︎