Municipal
Livestock
Oil Gas & Fracking
Aquaculture
Anaerobic Digestion
Activated Sludge & BNR
Trickling Biofilters
Pond Systems
Type 1 Systems show no resistance to environmental perturbations. They are easily disrupted by them and have no capacity for recovery from such perturbations. If we start with the ping-pong ball balanced on the edge of the jar and it is nudged into the jar, it begins a positive feedback loop journey that it cannot recover from. It has total inertia to recovery from the perturbation and succumbs to it.
This can be explained by the paucity of Attractors present in the system, the subsequent lack of Requisite Variety of response and the consequent absence of any Autopoeitic self- optimization and recovery capacity.
In contrast, Type 4 Systems show “inertia to disruption” by environmental perturbations. In other words, their Requisite Variety gives them a range of response and feedback options which give the System inertia to disruption and capacity for recovery and self-restoration of system stability and sustainability. This self-optimizing and self-perpetuating capability are known as Autopoiesis.