Complexity and Scales: the Challenge for Integrated Assessment

摘要

"Complexity", in science, can be linked to the need of using, in parallel, not reducible models (= the coexistence of non-equivalent descriptive domains required) for a useful representation of a certain phenomenon. This is always the case, when dealing with: (1) nested hierarchical systems (= in which relevant patterns are detectable only on different space-time scales); and (2) socioeconomic systems (= in which agents are not only non-equivalent observers, but also reflexive).