Articles | Volume 11, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-11-395-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-11-395-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
04 May 2020
Research article |
| 04 May 2020
| 04 May 2020
Earth system modeling with endogenous and dynamic human societies: the copan:CORE open World–Earth modeling framework
Earth System Analysis and Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Telegrafenberg A31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Kräftriket 2B, 114 19 Stockholm, Sweden
Earth System Analysis and Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Telegrafenberg A31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Wolfram Barfuss
Earth System Analysis and Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Telegrafenberg A31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Department of Physics, Humboldt University, Newtonstr. 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Marc Wiedermann
Earth System Analysis and Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Telegrafenberg A31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Johannes A. Kassel
Earth System Analysis and Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Telegrafenberg A31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Straße 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
Tim Kittel
Department of Physics, Humboldt University, Newtonstr. 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Jakob J. Kolb
Earth System Analysis and Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Telegrafenberg A31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Department of Physics, Humboldt University, Newtonstr. 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Till Kolster
Earth System Analysis and Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Telegrafenberg A31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Department of Physics, Humboldt University, Newtonstr. 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Finn Müller-Hansen
Earth System Analysis and Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Telegrafenberg A31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), EUREF Campus 19, Torgauer Straße 12–15, 10829 Berlin, Germany
Ilona M. Otto
Earth System Analysis and Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Telegrafenberg A31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Kilian B. Zimmerer
Earth System Analysis and Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Telegrafenberg A31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 226, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Wolfgang Lucht
Earth System Analysis and Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, Telegrafenberg A31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Department of Geography, Humboldt University, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany
Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems, Humboldt University, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany
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- Using urban pasts to speak to urban presents in the Anthropocene P. Roberts et al. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-023-00014-4
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- How can social–ecological system models simulate the emergence of social–ecological crises? C. Brown et al. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10167
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53 citations as recorded by crossref.
- Mapping our reliance on the tropics can reveal the roots of the Anthropocene P. Roberts et al. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01998-x
- Decreases in the urban heat island effect during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) lockdown in Wuhan, China: Observational evidence S. Shanlei et al. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.7771
- The history of climate and society: a review of the influence of climate change on the human past D. Degroot et al. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8faa
- A global threshold model of enabling conditions for social tipping in pro-environmental behaviours – the role of sea level rise anticipation and climate change concern E. Smith et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-16-545-2025
- Implications of regional variations in climate change vulnerability and mitigation behaviour for social-climate dynamics A. Punnavajhala et al. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73874-8
- Flows of air, flows of electrons C. Rosol https://doi.org/10.1177/20530196251336250
- A New Framework for Integrating DNN-Based Geographic Simulation Models within GISystems P. Zhang et al. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi13100361
- Anticipation-induced social tipping: can the environment be stabilised by social dynamics? P. Müller et al. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00011-5
- Social tipping processes towards climate action: A conceptual framework R. Winkelmann et al. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107242
- Progress and prospects in paleoclimate modeling Z. Zhang et al. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-025-1919-6
- On the Limits of the Complex Systems Paradigm: Reckoning with Entropy, Epistemology, and the Social in the Anthropocene N. Parlato https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-026-10033-8
- Breaking vicious cycles of hydrological disasters and socioeconomic inequalities G. Di Baldassarre et al. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2025.2593331
- Social norms and groups structure safe operating spaces in renewable resource use in a social–ecological multi-layer network model M. Bechthold et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-16-1365-2025
- What do we see when we look through the “anthromes lens”? V. Ehrenstein & M. Root‐Bernstein https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10637
- The Pareto effect in tipping social networks: from minority to majority J. Everall et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-16-189-2025
- A Call for An International Research Program on the Risk of a Global Polycrisis T. Homer-Dixon et al. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4058592
- Anthropocene, planetary boundaries and tipping points: interdisciplinarity and values in Earth system science V. Lam & Y. Rousselot https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-024-00579-4
- Biological nitrogen fixation of natural and agricultural vegetation simulated with LPJmL 5.7.9 S. Wirth et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7889-2024
- From lakes and glades to viability algorithms: automatic classification of system states according to the topology of sustainable management T. Kittel et al. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00262-2
- Understanding integrated human-Earth system models as boundary objects: Enhancing credibility and interdisciplinary collaboration Ł. Pawluczuk & J. Heitzig https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.33.1.4
- Networks of climate change: connecting causes and consequences P. Holme & J. Rocha https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-023-00536-9
- Beyond the matrix: Experimental approaches to studying cognitive agents in social-ecological systems U. Hertz et al. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105993
- Humans as predators of the biosphere: Consumer-resource techno-dynamics and its implications for sustainability V. Weinberger et al. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2026.111860
- Impactful environmental psychology needs formal theories A. Urai et al. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101619
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- Opportunities to foreground human embeddedness in the Anthropocene biosphere C. Kaandorp et al. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsus.2026.100734
- Geoscience of the energy–climate–sustainability nexus: Earth system processes, resources, and pathways to a sustainable future A. Raihan https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2026.102458
- From situated knowledges to situated modelling: a relational framework for simulation modelling A. Klein et al. https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2024.2361706
- Coupling human dynamics with the physics of climate: a path towards Human Earth Systems Models F. Tapiador & A. Navarro https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/ad7974
- From Human Sufficiency to Earth sufficiency: The role of nature quotient cultivation Q. Vuong & M. Nguyen https://doi.org/10.1177/20530196261464206
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- A brief review of the coupled human-Earth system modeling: Current state and challenges J. Tan et al. https://doi.org/10.1177/20530196221149121
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- Taxonomies for structuring models for World–Earth systems analysis of the Anthropocene: subsystems, their interactions and social–ecological feedback loops J. Donges et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-1115-2021
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- Evolution and prospects of Earth system models: Challenges and opportunities X. Pan et al. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2024.104986
- Toward quantification of the feasible potential of land-based carbon dioxide removal O. Perkins et al. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.11.011
- 古气候模拟研究进展与展望 仲. 张 et al. https://doi.org/10.1360/SSTe-2025-0312
- Introduction: Putting history in its place: Historicising planetary modelling T. Turnbull & A. Wickberg https://doi.org/10.1177/20530196261472808
- Using urban pasts to speak to urban presents in the Anthropocene P. Roberts et al. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-023-00014-4
- Disentangling Gaia and the Earth System T. Lenton & S. Dutreuil https://doi.org/10.16993/tellus.4132
- How can social–ecological system models simulate the emergence of social–ecological crises? C. Brown et al. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10167
- Fire may prevent future Amazon forest recovery after large-scale deforestation M. Drüke et al. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00911-5
- copan:LPJmL: a new hybrid modelling framework for dynamic land use and agricultural management J. Breier et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-6829-2026
- Optimization of coupling and global collapse in diffusively coupled socio-ecological resource exploitation networks T. Holstein et al. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/abe0db
Saved (final revised paper)
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Latest update: 15 Oct 2026
Short summary
We present an open-source software framework for developing so-called
world–Earth modelsthat link physical, chemical and biological processes with social, economic and cultural processes to study the Earth system's future trajectories in the Anthropocene. Due to its modular structure, the software allows interdisciplinary studies of global change and sustainable development that combine stylized model components from Earth system science, climatology, economics, ecology and sociology.
We present an open-source software framework for developing so-called
world–Earth modelsthat...
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