Resilience of coupled systems under deep uncertainty and dynamic complexity: An integrative literature review

TL;DR

This paper reviews existing research on the resilience of coupled systems facing deep uncertainty and dynamic complexity, highlighting gaps and proposing a new framework to improve resilience assessment and strategies.

Contribution

It provides an integrative review of literature, identifies gaps in current approaches, and proposes a new conceptual framework and tools for resilience evaluation under complex uncertainties.

Findings

Most studies address lower levels of uncertainty.

Few studies consider both dynamic complexity and deep uncertainty simultaneously.

The review identifies key gaps and proposes future research directions.

Abstract

Resilience in coupled systems is increasingly critical in addressing global challenges such as climate change and pandemics. These systems show unpredictable behaviour due to dynamic complexity and deep uncertainty across spatiotemporal scales. Despite growing interest, few studies systematically integrate both concepts when assessing resilience. This paper conducts an integrative review of 102 English-language publications to identify gaps in current approaches. Findings reveal that most papers address lower levels of uncertainty and rarely consider dynamic complexity and deep uncertainty simultaneously, which limits the effectiveness of resilience strategies. To advance systems research, we propose a conceptual framework and practical tools to support researchers and decision-makers in evaluating and improving resilience. The paper also outlines future research directions for more robust, adaptive, and integrative resilience assessments.