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Sustainability and Resilience 361

and industrial systems that we try to “manage” are dynamic, open
systems operating far from equilibrium, exhibiting nonlinear and
sometimes chaotic behavior. To better understand these phenom-
ena, scientists in many disciplines have been pursuing research in
the field of biocomplexity, which is concerned with characterizing
the interdependence of human and biophysical systems [8]. As illus-
trated in Figure 20.1, such studies investigate the flows of information,
wealth, materials, energy, labor, and waste among industrial systems
(energy, transportation, manufacturing, food production, etc.), soci-
etal systems (urbanization, mobility, communication, etc.) and natural
systems (soil, atmospheric, aquatic, biotic, etc.) [9]. The complexity,
dynamics, and nonlinear nature of these interdependent systems
imply that the notion of “sustainability” as a steady-state equilibrium
is not realistic. Forces of change, such as technological, geopolitical, or
climatic shifts will inevitably disrupt the cycles of material and energy
flows, sometimes leading to unintended consequences. For example,
few people foresaw that corn-based ethanol production in the United
States might drive up food prices in Mexico, or that floods in the
Mississippi basin might cause fuel shortages.
While ecosystems can be investigated on a local or regional
basis, the connectedness of the global economy makes it difficult, and

FIGURE 20.1 Interdependence among natural, industrial, and societal
systems [9].