Why Study Social-Ecological Systems?
Regenerative agriculture, climate adaptation, food security, and nature’s contributions to people - these aren’t separate challenges. They’re intertwined in complex systems where human decisions and environmental processes constantly influence each other.
The Interconnected Challenges
🌱 Regenerative Agriculture: How do farming practices spread through communities while improving soil health and biodiversity? Traditional models can’t capture the social learning and environmental feedback that drive adoption.
🌡️ Climate Adaptation: How do farmers actually adapt to changing weather patterns? Do they change planting dates, switch crops, or modify practices? How do these decisions affect regional food production?
🍽️ Food Security: How do social networks, policy interventions, and environmental changes interact to create food security or vulnerability? What happens when climate shocks ripple through supply chains?
🌿 Nature’s Contributions: How do human decisions about land use affect the ecosystem services that support human well-being? How do changes in nature’s contributions influence human behavior?
Why Traditional Approaches Fail
The problem: Most research treats these as separate issues. But in reality:
- Agricultural practices spread through social networks while changing soil health
- Climate adaptation strategies interact with social learning and policy responses
- Food security depends on how communities respond to environmental shocks
- Nature’s contributions change as humans modify land use, which changes human decisions
copan:LPJmL is the first framework that captures these intertwined dynamics on a planetary scale by simulating how human decisions and environmental processes actually coevolve over time.
How copan:LPJmL Helps
Real examples from our research:
- Conservation tillage spreads through social networks while improving soil carbon and crop yields
- Climate adaptation happens in real-time as farmers adjust planting dates without pre-computed scenarios
- AI-enhanced decision making shows how complex human reasoning affects agricultural outcomes
See our examples for detailed implementations, or learn about the technical framework that makes this research possible.
Ready to Explore?
📚 World-Earth Models - Technical framework details
🔧 Examples - Working implementations
📖 Documentation - Get started
🤝 Community - Join researchers
Understanding intertwined challenges requires modeling how humans and ecosystems truly coevolve together.