copan – Publications

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copan reader 2013–2021: a curated paper collection copan reader 2021

Donges, J. F., Heitzig, J. (Eds.), World-Earth Dynamics in the Anthropocene: A Copan Reader 2013 - 2021 (2021), 1st edition, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, DOI: 10.48485/pik.2021.004 

Special Issue in Earth System Dynamics

We have organized a Special Issue entitled Social dynamics and planetary boundaries in Earth system modelling in the increasingly highly reputed, ISI-listed journal Earth System Dynamics (ESD), published by the European Geosciences Union (EGU). Timeline: 2014–2018. Guest Editors: W. Lucht, J.F. Donges, A. Kleidon, S. Cornell, J. Dyke, M. Sivapalan, and J.J. Finnigan

Copan papers submitted, in review and discussion

Copan papers (peer-reviewed)

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

Other copan publications

  • Denizen, S, and Donges, JF,
    Somewhere. Somehow. A co-evolution story,
    Anthropocene Curriculum 2014 course website, contribution of the Technosphere - Coevolution working group, Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany.
    Republished in Technosphere Magazine, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 2017 (with illustrations).
    Teaser: If dialectical distinctions between humans and bacteria were dissolved into an undifferentiated anthropocenic nexus, what new questions would emerge?

Relevant pre-copan publications

  • Lucht, W (2011),
    Global change and the need for new cosmologies. In: Bergmann S, Gerten D (Eds.), Religion in Environmental and Climate Change, Continuum International Publishing Group, London, ISBN: 9781441169297, pp. 16-31.
  • Lucht, W (2009),
    Air, a Planetary Hybrid. In: Elements - Continents, Approaches to Determinants of Environmental History and their Reifications, Hermann B, Dahlke C (Eds.), Nova Acta Leopoldina 98/360, Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften, Halle (Saale), 304 pp., 45-62.
  • Lucht, W, Pachauri, RK (2004),
    The mental component of the Earth system. In: Schellnhuber H-J, Crutzen PJ, Clark WC, Claussen M, Held H (Eds.), Earth System Analysis for Sustainability, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 454 pp., 341-365. (review of this book and paper by Tyler Volk in BioScience here).

Bachelor, Master and PhD theses completed within the scope of COPAN

(most recent first)

  • Jakob Lochner, Master thesis in Physics, University of Leipzig
  • Tanja Holstein, Master thesis in Physics, Humboldt University, Berlin
  • Jonathan Krönke, Master thesis in Physics, University of Potsdam
  • Felix Strnad, Master thesis in Physics, University of Göttingen
  • Sandra Gutjahr, Master thesis in Medical Physics, University of Halle
  • Lena Pfeifer, Master Thesis, TU Berlin, Germany, 2019: Impacts of Changing Climate and Weather on Concern about Climate Change and Willingness to Mitigate in Moderarte Climates: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis (main copan supervisor: Dr. IM Otto).
  • Sami Deweerdt, Master Thesis, ESCP Europe, Campus Berlin, Germany, 2019: The oil and gas industry and climate governance: An institutional perspective (main copan supervisor: Dr. IM Otto).
  • Philipp Cesnkowsky, Master Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and Université Paris VII and XII, France, 2019: Livelihoods, ecosystems provisioning services and social differentiation: An empirical study of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (1993-2011) (main copan supervisor: Dr. IM Otto).

  • Britta Grahan-Hyde, Master Thesis, University of London Centre for Development, Environment and Policy, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK, 2019: Attitudes and assessment of investors with regard to divestment form fossil fuel assets (main copan supervisor: Dr. IM Otto).

  • Peter Hatz, Master thesis in Product Design and Process Development, Köln International School of Design, Technical University, Köln, Germany, 2019: Development of Sustainability Indicators for Organizations and Business (main copan supervisor: Dr. IM Otto).
  • Benedikt Stumpf, Master thesis in Physics Education, Free University Berlin, 2019: Dynamics of tipping elements on complex networks (main copan supervisor: Dr. JF Donges). For copan publications see above.
  • Wolfram Martin Barfuss, PhD thesis in Physics, Humboldt University Berlin, 2019: Learning dynamics and decision paradigms in social-ecological dilemmas - Modeling complex social-ecological systems based on the agent-environment interface (main copan supervisor: Dr. JF Donges). DOI: 10.18452/20127.
    For copan publications see above.
  • Johannes Kassel, Master thesis in Physics, University of Göttingen, 2019: Clustering of dynamics node states in an adaptive network model (main copan supervisor: Dr. JF Donges).
    For copan publications see above.
  • Antonia Schuster, Master thesis in Agricultural Economics, Humboldt University Berlin, 2018: Socio-metabolic class theory and statistical analysis of German population survey data. An interdisciplinary approach of assessing socio metabolic classes on the German society and the inherent role of different types of capital on carbon emissions (main copan supervisor: Dr. IM Otto). Humboldt International Office Travel Grant Award, Thaer Institute Best Master Thesis Award.
  • Kilian Zimmerer, Master thesis in Physics, University of Heidelberg, 2018: Opinion dynamics in an age of digital transformation - A model of continuous opinion, content filtering and bounded information uptake (main copan supervisors: Dr. JF Donges, W Barfuss).
    For copan publications see above.
  • Milena Oehlers, Bachelor thesis in Physics, Technical University of Berlin, 2018: Bifurcation analysis in a stylized World-Earth model (main copan supervisor: Dr. J Heitzig).
  • Finn Müller-Hansen, PhD thesis in Physics, Humboldt University Berlin, 2018: A complex systems perspective on land-use dynamics in the Amazon: patterns, agents, networks (main copan supervisors: Dr. JF Donges, Dr. J Heitzig). DOI: 10.18452/19476.
    For copan publications see above.
  • Sebastian Heinz, Master thesis in Sustainable Resource Management, Technical University Munich, 2018: Examining the Impact of Environmental Uncertainty and the Drivers of Adaptation in the Context of Asymmetric Resource Management Dilemmas: Lessons from Behavioral Irrigation Experiments Carried Out in China (main copan supervisor: Dr. IM Otto)
  • Kyoung Mi Kim, Master thesis in Environmental and Resource Management, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus - Senftenberg, 2018: The Lifestyle Carbon Footprint of the Super Rich (main copan supervisor: Dr. IM Otto)
  • Luca Joey Kunz, Bachelor thesis in Physics, Humboldt University Berlin, 2018:
    Low-dimensional models of global human-nature coevolution and their Topology of Sustainable Management (main copan supervisor: Dr. J Heitzig)
  • Anja Klein, Master thesis in Anthropology, Humboldt University Berlin, 2018:
    Knowledge Practices in the Modelling of "Socio-Ecological Coevolutions":
    On Simplification, Experimentation, Visualization and Alignment     (HU supervisors: Prof. Dr. Jörg Niewöhner, Prof. Dr. Tobias Krüger). DOI: 10.18452/19475.
  • Vivian Zoé Grudde, Master thesis in Environmental Policy, Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs, 2018:
    Meet, Discuss… and Support Climate Policies! A proposal for a complex system model framework for polycentric climate governance (main copan supervisor: Dr. J Heitzig)
  • Till Kolster, Master thesis in Physics, Humboldt University Berlin, 2018:
    Development of an agent-based migration model including market interactions and statistical analysis thereof (main copan supervisors: Dr. J Heitzig, J Kolb).
    For copan publications see above.
  • Tim Kittel, PhD thesis in Physics, Humboldt University Berlin, 2018:
    Transient analysis of complex dynamical systems in the context of sustainability (main copan supervisor: Dr. J Heitzig). DOI: 10.18452/18928.
    For copan publications see above.
  • Ann Kristin Klose, Bachelor thesis in Environmental Science, Carl-von-Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, 2018:
    Dynamics of interacting ecological tipping elements     (main copan supervisor: Dr. JF Donges).
  • Yuki Asano, Bachelor thesis in Economics, FernUniversität Hagen, 2017:
    Social learning in an agent-based Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans model (main copan supervisors: J Kolb, Dr. J Heitzig).
  • Vera Heck, PhD thesis in Physical Geography, Humboldt University Berlin, 2017:
    Interference in the Earth system through terrestrial carbon dioxide removal: numerical simulations of trade-offs, risks and opportunities (main copan supervisor: Dr. JF Donges).
    copan paper published in Earth System Dynamics.
  • Fabian Geier, Master thesis in Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, 2016:
    Evolution of opinion formation in complex single and double layer networks with local nonlinear resource dynamics (main copan supervisors: Dr. JF Donges, W Barfuss).
  • Rebekka Koch, Bachelor thesis in Physics, Humboldt University Berlin, 2016:
    Operationalization of topology of sustainable management to estimate qualitatively different regions in state space (main copan supervisors: T Kittel, Dr. J Heitzig).
    Preprint published in arXiv.
  • Jan Nitzbon, Master thesis in Physics, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, 2016:
    Bifurcation analysis and parameter estimation in low-dimensional models of global human-nature coevolution (main copan supervisor: Dr. J Heitzig).
    Published in Environmental Research Letters.
  • Erik Scharwächter, Master thesis in Computer Science, RWTH Aachen University, 2016: Mining frequent temporal subgraphs in dynamic networks (main copan supervisor: Dr. JF Donges).
    Published in ICDM 2016 proceedings.
  • Birte Ewers, Master thesis in Economics, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, 2016: Fossil fuel divestment, carbon risk and climate change mitigation dynamics in an agent-based simulation (main copan supervisors: Dr. J Heitzig, Dr. JF Donges).
  • Boyan Beronov, Bachelor thesis in Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, 2015: A cybernetic framework describing limited information-processing open systems (main copan supervisor: Dr. JF Donges).
  • Sabine Auer, Master thesis in Physics, Technical University Berlin, 2014:
    The dynamics of coalition formation on complex networks (main copan supervisor: Dr. J Heitzig).
    Published in Nature Scientific Reports.
  • Marc Wiedermann, Master thesis in Physics, Humboldt University Berlin, 2014:
    Opinion formation and imitation on complex networks driven by local nonlinear resource dynamics     (main copan supervisor: Dr. JF Donges).
    Published in Physical Review E.