Redundancy, Diversity, and Modularity in Network Resilience: Applications for International Trade and Implications for Public Policy

Ali Kharrazi; Yadong Yu; Arun Jacob; Nemi Vora; Brian D Fath

doi:10.1016/j.crsust.2020.06.001

Redundancy, Diversity, and Modularity in Network Resilience: Applications for International Trade and Implications for Public Policy

Curr Res Environ Sustain. 2020 Dec:2:100006. doi: 10.1016/j.crsust.2020.06.001. Epub 2020 Jul 25.

Authors

Ali Kharrazi^{1

2}, Yadong Yu³, Arun Jacob⁴, Nemi Vora^{1

5}, Brian D Fath^{1

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Advanced Systems Analysis, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria.
² Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) and Ca' Foscari University of Venice, 30175, Venice, Italy.
³ School of Business, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
⁴ Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator, 1191, Beaulac, Cairo, Egypt.
⁵ Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
⁶ Department of Biological Sciences, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA, 1, -410-704-2535.
⁷ Department of Environmental Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

Abstract

Sustainability is increasingly concerned with the complex interactions between nature and society, and we need to seek solutions towards the challenges that threaten humanity's collective wellbeing. Towards this end, it is critical to advance the application of research examining the dynamic interactions of the components of complex social-ecological systems and their emerging properties. A key research area is on advancing tools and strategies relevant to the evaluation and strengthening of resilience. Redundancy, diversity, and modularity are important characteristics of resilience with a high potential for application in various critical social-ecological systems. This paper provides a critical overview of the theoretical underpinnings of modularity and redundancy and their application in measuring resilience of trade networks with implications for public policy and institutional design.

Keywords: diversity; modularity; redundancy; resilience; sustainability; trade networks.