For their 2022 article on social-ecological tipping points “To tip or not to tip: The Window of Tipping Point Analysis for social-ecological systems” the Humboldt-Tipping team won the 2023  Lamberson Award 2023. 

Congratulations!

The authors defined a “Window of Tipping Point Analysis (WTPA)”

The definition of the WTPA itself is related to the research question to be examined encompasses the following six steps:

• 1.
  

  Describe the elements included in the analysis. This may relate to specifying which species are considered (ecological subsystem) and which human actors or sectors (social realm). We define elements as a relevant unit that may change its state. Its exact dimension depends on the analysis at hand.

• 2.
  

  Describe the period considered and the speed of adjustment (years vs decades).

• 3.
  

  Describe the relations between the different elements. The relation may be uni- or bidirectional, with different speeds between the elements.

• 4.
  

  Describe which exogenous impacts—impacts from outside the window—may be relevant and are considered; and ideally, also describe which exogenous impacts are excluded from the analysis and how elements within the window impact elements outside of the window.

• 5.
  

  Describe the potential states of the different elements. This is especially relevant when conducting a temporal analysis. Relations between elements may change depending on their specific states.

• 6.
  

  Describe intervention possibilities and how these intervention possibilities may relate to the different elements and their potential states.