Quotes from Lance H. Gunderson

For urban systems, growth rate is a fast variable, governance is a medium variable, and infrastructure is a slow variable, with slow variables ultimately determining the resilience of a system (Allen and Holling 2008).

A system in a rigidity trap has high capital, high connectivity, and high resilience (Holling 2001). A system in a poverty trap has low levels or amounts of these three properties. A system caught in an eroding or lock-trap has low capital but high levels of connectivity and resilience. The fourth trap is the least well understood of these four and is called an isolation trap, as it has high capital or potential but is not highly coupled or resilient.

TABLE 1-1. Levels of the three variables that characterize four system traps (Holling et al. 2002; Allison and Hobbs 2004; Angeler et al. 2020). Capital Connectivity Resilience Rigidity trap High High High Poverty trap Low Low Low Eroding trap Low–eroding High High Isolation trap High Low–none Low