Abstract for: Rethinking agriculture of a shrinking world: operationalization of resilience with a System Dynamics perspective

It is needed to rethink the way we design and manage agriculture systems in order to face the unavoidable challenges that undeniable global climate change carries with it. This paper contributes to this process by proposing a framework to operationalize resilience into system dynamics models. Resilience is a broad concept that includes the creation of resilience, flexibility and adaptability of systems to unexpected disturbances. Rethinking agricultural systems from a resilience perspective is needed to ensure their ability to continue providing enough food. System dynamics simulations can support decision makers in this process by providing holistic representations of the interconnected systems (economic, social and environmental). However, there is no clear framework to operationalize the concept of resilience into system dynamics models. The present paper contributes to fill-in this gap, by exploring how resilience can be evaluated in system dynamics models and the structures that support it. This proposed framework is used to compare different policies to improve the maize production of Jutiapa, Guatemala and to analyze the structural causes of their differences. The results observed in the case show the usefulness of our approach and constitute a step in the integration of resilience into system dynamics models.