Systemic Risk and Resilience (SYRR) aims to assess and support the management of systemic anthropogenic and environmental risks.
The SYRR research group analyses the increasingly systemic socio-ecological risks associated with global and local change, and with policy, practice and civil society co-generates options for building resilience.
Global change through rising physical and social interdependencies is leading to increasingly systemic and existential risks that lead to cascading impacts and potentially intolerable burdens on communities and societies across the world.
SYRR develops and applies agile systems science to address social-ecological risks that are embedded in complex systems and characterised by potentially cascading, irreversible and existential consequences. We identify risk drivers, model network interactions, assess probabilistic outcomes and co-develop stakeholder-driven options with policy, practice and civil society that are applicable across scales. Our approach for addressing existential and systemic risk combines advanced quantitative modeling and qualitative research with empirical assessment and soft systems analysis.
Studying systemic risk and resilience in this context includes:
- Taking a systems approach for understanding and modelling the interconnected drivers of multiple and compound risks across scales.
- Utilizing a network perspective for studying complexity in socio-ecological systems.
- Analysing failure and limits of conventional risk management and adaptation in complex, dynamic and adaptive systems.
- Developing and carrying out empirical and process-based resilience measurement for addressing key risks.
- Generating systemic resilience in relevant local to global socio-ecological systems through co-generating effective and applicable policy options that address risks as well as create developmental co-benefits.
We focus, inter alia, on risk and resilience associated with climate change, disasters, food webs, finance and pandemics. SYRR work builds on activities and experience gained from the previous IIASA programs on Risk and Resilience (RISK) as well as Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) and Evolution and Ecology (EEP).
Staff
Karina Reiter
Researcher (SYRR)
Mia Landauer
Guest Research Scholar (SYRR, CAT)
Stefan Velev
Research Assistant (SYRR)
Teresa Deubelli-Hwang
Researcher (SYRR, EQU)
News
07 December 2022
Reinhard Mechler joins Advisory Committee on Climate Resilience of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)
CGAP is a global partnership of more than 30 leading development organizations that works to advance the lives of poor people, especially women, through financial inclusion.
09 November 2022
Urgent need to address climate-related losses and damages
With COP27 underway in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the subject of climate-related losses and damages is once again expected to take center stage. IIASA contributed to a new policy brief by the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance, of which IIASA is a member, which provides important facts, figures, and context that outline just how vital it is that progress is made on this issue.
29 April 2022
Brian Fath receives Board of Regents Faculty Award
Senior IIASA researcher and Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) Scientific Coordinator, Brian Fath, has received the 2022 University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in research, scholarship, and creativity.
Focus
05 December 2022
In pursuit of resilience at 1.5°C
Options Magazine, Winter 2022: How would your community cope if floods or wildfires raced through it? With a 1.5°C rise in global temperature drawing nearer, such crises become more likely, but it is hard to gauge how prepared communities are. Does everyone have savings in place? Could schools remain open? Do people know the flood drill?
04 December 2022
IIASA and Austria: supporting Austria into a sustainable future
Options Magazine, Winter 2022: IIASA researchers have been working closely with all levels of Austrian society including scientific institutions, policymakers, and the public to help the country move towards a more sustainable and just future.
28 November 2022
Analyzing urban metabolism in Beijing
Options Magazine, Winter 2022: A new comprehensive study on the urban metabolism of Beijing clarifies the impact of buildings, infrastructure, and goods on the city and its residents.
Publications
Filippi, M.E., Barcena, A., Sakic Trogrlic, R., Cremen, G., Menteşe, E.Y., Gentile, R., Creed, M.J., Jenkins, L.T., Kalaycioglu, M., Poudel, D.P., Muthusamy, M., Manandhar, V., Adhikari, S., Rai, M., Dhakal, A., Barake, B., Tarbali, K., Galasso, C., & McCloskey, J. (2023). Interdisciplinarity in practice: Reflections from early-career researchers developing a risk-informed decision support environment for Tomorrow's cities. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 85 e103481. 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103481.
Cremen, G., Galasso, C., McCloskey, J., Barcena, A., Creed, M., Filippi, M.E., Gentile, R., Jenkins, L.T., Kalaycioglu, M., Mentese, E.Y., Muthusamy, M., Tarbali, K., & Sakic Trogrlic, R. (2023). A state-of-the-art decision-support environment for risk-sensitive and pro-poor urban planning and design in Tomorrow's cities. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 85 e103400. 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103400.
Mollet, F., Enberg, K., Boukal, D.S., Rijnsdorp, A.D., & Dieckmann, U. (2023). An evolutionary explanation of female‐biased sexual size dimorphism in North Sea plaice, Pleuronectes platessa L. Ecology and Evolution 13 (1) e8070. 10.1002/ece3.8070.
Jenkins, L.T., Creed, M.J., Tarbali, K., Muthusamy, M., Šakić Trogrlić, R., Phillips, J., Watson, C.S., Sinclair, H.D., Galasso, C., & McCloskey, J. (2023). Physics-based simulations of multiple natural hazards for risk-sensitive planning and decision making in expanding urban regions. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 84 e103338. 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103338.
Nujaira, H., Prasad, K.A., Kumar, P., Yunus, A.P., Kharrazi, A. , Gupta, L.N., Kurniawan, T.A., Sajjad, H., & Avtar, R. (2022). Quantifying spatio-temporal variation in aquaculture production areas in Satkhira, Bangladesh using geospatial and social survey. PLoS ONE 17 (12) e0278042. 10.1371/journal.pone.0278042.