Towards identifying epidemic processes with interplay between complex networks and human populations

In the past decade, the network science community has witnessed huge advances in a wide range of domains including threshold theory, prediction and control of epidemic dynamics, etc. However, the understanding of epidemic spatial spread on metapopulation networks achieved so far have opened the door to new questions and problems, and a number of major challenges have prompted the research activity. In this paper, we review the recent advances about identifying epidemic parameters and spatial spread processes on metapopulation networks. For simplicity, a two-subpopulation system is taken as an example. Then we introduce an new identification framework as the so called invasion pathways identification algorithm to investigate the problem of identifying invasion spreading process for an epidemic on networked metapopulations. Finally, the outlook of identifying epidemic systems is given.