Environmental Coherence Formation (ECF): A Scale-Invariant Framework for Persistence via Environmental Modification

Environmental Coherence Formation (ECF) is a scale-invariant framework describing how persistent systems—from physical and biological systems to human societies—maintain stability by modifying their local environments through feedback over time. ECF proposes that persistence is achieved not only through adaptation to conditions, but through active environmental biasing that reduces energetic loss and increases coherence. The framework integrates ideas from complex systems science, thermodynamics (far-from-equilibrium behavior), ecology (niche construction), cybernetics, and systems theory, and is presented as a unifying lens that generates testable predictions across biological, ecological, architectural, and social domains. KEYWORDS complex systems; self-organization; feedback loops; environmental modification; persistence; niche construction; thermodynamics; far-from-equilibrium; systems theory; scale invariance; emergence; cybernetics; regulation; dissipative structures; social systems; built environment; architecture and environment; environmental bias; coherence; resilience