Participation in modeling social-ecological systems across scales in agriculture and forestry

Participatory approaches have gained recognition in scientific research, particularly in modeling human-environmental interactions and social-ecological systems (SES). Despite this achievement, a lack of in-depth understanding prevails to which degree, and at which scales and levels, participation takes place during the modeling cycle. Furthermore, information on the linkages between the level of the participating stakeholders and the modeling level of agents and environmental processes remains scarce. To shed light on this research gap, we conducted a systematic review including 79 relevant studies focusing on social-ecological systems within agricultural or forestry domains. Results reveal that participation was mostly carried out at lower spatial levels (local and regional) while stakeholders commonly originated from one spatial level, mainly the study area. Agent behavior was mainly simulated at a single spatial level. The number of studies modeling multi- and cross-scale levels or integrating participation was small. In rare cross-level modeling cases, local-level agents were predominately simulated as an aggregate at higher levels. We found that stakeholders most commonly participated in model parameterization and calibration, but rarely in model results communication. Participation was also relatively strong in model design, development and validation. This can be explained by the need of scientists for model input or to improve the transparency of the modeling process. To address these gaps in future studies, we recommend to model agents operating at their “real-world” level, while capturing interactions between agents across different scales, rather than (dis)aggregate agent behaviors to a single level. Furthermore, participation should go beyond fulfilling the mere scientific requirement of model development, and should be used to enhance the applicability and relevance of SES models.