Ecological Security And Planetary Resilience -Integrated Approaches to a Sustainable Future

Vladica Ristić 1, Marija Maksin2, and Jelena Bošković2
1 Faculty for applied ecology Futura, Belgrade Metropolitan University Požeška 83a, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
2 Institute of Architecture and Urban & Spatial Planning of Serbia (IAUS), Bulevar kralja Aleksandra 73/II, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
3 Belgrade Metropolitan University, 11000
Belgrade, Serbia
vladica.ristic@futura.edu.rs
maja@iaus.ac.rs
 jelena.boskovic@metropolitan.ac.rs
DOI: 10.46793/BISEC25.310R

ABSTRACT: This paper reconceptualizes ecological security as a govern-able equilibrium between human aspiration and the regenerative capac-ities of the Earth system. Moving beyond state-centric notions of se-curity, it frames the ecosystem itself as the primary referent and inte-grates insights from social–ecological systems theory, resilience think-ing, and circular economy practice. Synthesizing evidence across four fronts—pollution control, climate resilience, biodiversity restoration, and waste/resource governance—the study shows that security emerges where prevention, adaptation, resilience, and solidarity operate as a single co-produced regime. We detail how digital prevention (sensor networks, pre-dictive analytics, citizen participation) converts environmental manage-ment from reactive cleanup to anticipatory stewardship; how climate-resilient, nature-integrated infra-structure transforms shocks into man-ageable disturbances; how treating biodiversity as critical infrastructure restores the functions that underwrite prosperity; and how circular, dig-itally traceable material flows reduce systemic risk while aligning every-day production and consumption with planetary boundaries. The paper proposes a pragmatic architecture, risk-informed prevention, adaptive governance by design, biodiversity networks, and circularity with ac-countability, supported by a compact dashboard of auditable indicators across prevention, adaptation, resilience, and solidarity. Three structural limits are identified—epistemic, institutional, and ethical, along with ac-tionable pathways to address them through place-based modeling, social licensing of environmental AI, evaluative policy bundles, and bio-cultural restoration. Overall, ecological security is shown to be measurable, gov-ernable, and ethically grounded: a civic grammar for the Anthropocene that converts vulnerability into planetary resilience and redefines pros-perity as the stewardship of conditions that allow all beings to flourish..

KEYWORDS: Ecological security · planetary resilience · social–ecological systems · digital early warning · citizen science · climate-resilient infras-tructure · biodiversity restoration · circular economy · resource intelli-gence · zero-waste governance · safe operating space.

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