A social-ecological system consists of a bio-geo-physical unit and its associated social actors and institutions. Social-ecological systems are complex, adaptive and delimited by spatial or functional boundaries surrounding particular ecosystems and their problem context.

Resilience is the capacity to handle whatever the future brings without the system altering in undesirable ways. Resilience is necessary for a sustainable future and lies in self-reinforcing dynamics that prevent shifts into unwanted directions.

Vulnerability refers to the degree to which a system is unable to avoid negative consequences of change - e.g. resource degradation, climate change or disasters.

Adaptive capacity and transformability refer to system ability to change. Adaptive capacity where the objective is to maintain the existing system; transformability where the existing system is undesirable or subject to emergent systemic failure which makes change unavoidable.

Emergence is generated through the capacity of systems to self-organize without external direction.  While emergent phenomena occur at higher system levels it is unclear whether they can be explained through agent behaviour at lower system levels.