Viability and resilience of complex systems

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A key characteristic of complex systems is their resilience, allowing them to withstand significant disturbances and rebuild. Understanding how these systems recover from external perturbations necessitates a quantitative and multidisciplinary approach. This book showcases new methods for identifying actions that promote recovery, with examples such as bacterial biofilms resisting detachment, grassland savannahs rebounding from fire, language competition dynamics, and social networking sites overcoming vandalism. It introduces the concepts of resilience and viability, alongside the mathematical foundations for analyzing systems. The text explores individual or agent-based modeling of complex systems and relates these to analytically tractable approximations. Case studies illustrate the practical application of these techniques, while the final section discusses advanced software tools for performing necessary calculations. Aimed at a broad scientific audience from both natural and social sciences, the book requires some mathematical understanding to fully grasp its theoretical chapters. It serves as a vital reference for those interested in applying resilience and viability concepts in various contexts.