The physics of governance networks: critical transitions in contagion dynamics on multilayer adaptive networks with application to the sustainable use of renewable resources

Abstract

Adaptive networks are a versatile approach to model phenomena such as contagion and spreading dynamics, critical transitions and structure formation that emerge from the dynamic coevolution of complex network structure and node states. Here, we study critical transitions in contagion dynamics on multilayer adaptive networks with dynamic node states and present an application to the governance of sustainable resource use. We focus on a three layer adaptive network model, where a polycentric governance network interacts with a social network of resource users which in turn interacts with an ecological network of renewable resources. We uncover that sustainability is favored for slow interaction timescales, large homophilic network adaptation rate (as long it is below the fragmentation threshold) and high taxation rates. Interestingly, we also observe a trade-off between an eco-dictatorship (reduced model with a single governance actor that always taxes unsustainable resource use) and the polycentric governance network of multiple actors. In the latter setup, sustainability is enhanced for low but hindered for high tax rates compared to the eco-dictatorship case. These results highlight mechanisms generating emergent critical transitions in contagion dynamics on multilayer adaptive network and show how these can be understood and approximated analytically, relevant for understanding complex adaptive systems from various disciplines ranging from physics and epidemiology to sociology and global sustainability science. The paper also provides insights into potential critical intervention points for policy in the form of taxes in the governance of sustainable renewable resource use that can inform more process-detailed social-ecological modeling.

References in corpus (12)

• The structure and dynamics of multilayer networks
• Epidemic dynamics on an adaptive network
• Voter Model on Heterogeneous Graphs
• Nonequilibrium phase transition in the coevolution of networks and opinions
• Human strategy updating in evolutionary games
• A model for the emergence of cooperation, interdependence and structure in evolving networks
• Autocatalytic Sets and the Growth of Complexity in an Evolutionary Model
• Adaptive-network models of swarm dynamics
• Macroscopic description of complex adaptive networks co-evolving with dynamic node states
• Zealotry Effects on Opinion Dynamics in the Adaptive Voter Model
• Network topology near criticality in adaptive epidemics
• Multilayer coevolution dynamics of the nonlinear voter model

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Earth system modeling with endogenous and dynamic human societies: the copan:CORE open World-Earth modeling framework
• Intrinsic fluctuations of reinforcement learning promote cooperation
• Modeling the effects of environmental and perceptual uncertainty using deterministic reinforcement learning dynamics with partial observability
• Anticipation-induced social tipping -- Can the environment be stabilised by social dynamics?
• Optimization of coupling and global collapse in diffusively coupled socio-ecological resource exploitation networks