Carl Zeiss Foundation Research Group on Coevolutionary Human-Earth System Modelling

The Carl Zeiss Foundation Independent Research Group on Coevolutionary Human-Earth System Modelling aims to develop novel approaches for integrated human-Earth system modelling and its methodological and theoretical foundations. These tools are applied to study the intertwined interactions between biophysical processes, such as climate and ecosystem change, and socio-economic and socio-cultural structures and dynamics, such as institutions, norms, social groups and individual behaviours that are shaping planet Earth in the Anthropocene.

The group’s research program is focusing on the following three topical areas:

1. Fundamental research on integrated human-Earth system modelling,
2. Non-linear dynamics, tipping points and resilience in the coupled human-Earth system,
3. Regenerative practices and transformations in the intertwined human-biosphere system.

While the group focuses on developing and applying methods grounded in the fields of Earth system and complex systems science, its scope is deeply inter- and multidisciplinary by necessity. The human-Earth system must be represented in a more realistic way as a complex, adaptive, and constantly changing whole. This brings not only climate processes, but also land use, biodiversity, social learning processes, economic incentives, and technological developments into focus. Our concern is to depict the diverse interactions between human action, economic structures, cultural dynamics, and biophysical processes in modeling.

The models further developed here should enable the connection of very different elements: from global Earth system models to macroeconomic scenarios to approaches from complexity and network theory. On this basis, phenomena such as tipping points, resilience, and collapse risks can be systematically investigated.

Publications

Selected Publications

Software Publications

Projects, Events, and Network

Projects

• Carl Zeiss Stiftung Research Groups on Earth System Modelling
• InSEEDS model development
• copan:lpjml model framework development
• Social-ecological fieldwork in Costa Rica: Interviews on Farmer Decision-Making
• Research collaboration with University of Osnabrück, University of Bern and Landesforsten Niedersachsen on: “Regeneration at multiple scales: How social-ecological modeling connects place-based interventions with planetary visions and pathways”

Co-Organized Conferences and Events

• European Geosciences General Assembly (EGU) in Vienna
• Social Simulation Conference (Delft, The Netherlands)
• Stockholm Food Forum (Stockholm, Sweden)
• Global Tipping Points Conference (Exeter, UK)
• Overshoots Conference at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Laxenburg, Austria)

Network

• Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research [PIK] 
• Earth Resilience Science Unit [ERSU]
• Earth Resilience and Sustainability Initiative [ERSI]
• Stockholm Resilience Center
• High Meadows Environment Institute, Princeton University
• Anthropocene Lab, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• Society for Social-Ecological Research
• Open Modelling Foundation
• deRSE