Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Combining Green Metrics And Digital Twins For Sustainability Planning And Governance Of Smart Buildings And Cities, Casey R. Corrado, Suzanne M. Delong, Emily G. Holt, Edward Y. Hua, Andreas Tolk

VMASC Publications

Creating a more sustainable world will require a coordinated effort to address the rise of social, economic, and environmental concerns resulting from the continuous growth of cities. Supporting planners with tools to address them is pivotal, and sustainability is one of the main objectives. Modeling and simulation augmenting digital twins can play an important role to implement these tools. Although various green best practices have been utilized over time and there are related attempts at measuring green success, works in the published literature tend to focus on addressing a single problem (e.g., energy efficiency), and a comprehensive approach that takes …

Resilient Design And Crisis Management, Rich Ham

Operations Management Presentations

Explores the techniques to design resilience into systems, business functions, compliance, quality assurance and response to uncertainty. Includes an overview of Federal Emergency Management Agency principles in resilient design and crisis management, including implementation of National Incident Management System processes and industry standards to frame resilient design, procedures and planning documents. Learn to focus on the use of testing, exercises, and implementation of Plan, Do, Check, Act model to continually improve government, business and personal continuity through periods of cascading uncertainty.

Internet Of Things For Sustainable Mining, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

The sustainable mining Internet of Things deals with the applications of IoT technology to the coupled needs of sustainable recovery of metals and a healthy environment for a thriving planet. In this chapter, the IoT architecture and technology is presented to support development of a digital mining platform emphasizing the exploration of rock–fluid–environment interactions to develop extraction methods with maximum economic benefit, while maintaining and preserving both water quantity and quality, soil, and, ultimately, human health. New perspectives are provided for IoT applications in developing new mineral resources, improved management of tailings, monitoring and mitigating contamination from mining. Moreover, tools …

Moving Toward Prevention: Rural Water Maintenance And Sustained Service Delivery, Caleb Cord, Jeffrey P. Walters, Harold Lockwood, Pranav Chintalapati, Amy Javernick-Will, Karl Linden

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

This paper outlines a research plan to be conducted across the Sustainable WASH Systems (SWS) Learning consortium to learn from maintenance approaches both internal and external to the partnership. It follows a study commissioned by IRC WASH and SWS which gathered information on prominent existing approaches from key informants.

System Dynamics Modelling As A Tool For Assessing Rural Water Sustainability, Pranav Chintalapati, Jeffrey P. Walters, Amy Javernick-Will, Karl Linden

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

System dynamics modelling is a tool that has been used for decades in business management and economics applications, but little focus has been applied to the WASH sector.

Specifically, this paper discusses the use of causal loop diagrams and stock flow diagrams as methods to better understand the systemic drivers affecting sustainability of rural water service delivery.

Embedding Systems Thinking Into Ewb Project Planning And Development: Assessing The Utility Of A Group Model Building Approach, Kimberly Pugel, Jeffrey P. Walters

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Amongst growing sociotechnical efforts, engineering students and professionals both in the international development sector and industry are challenged to approach projects more holistically to achieve project goals. Engineering service learning organisations must similarly adapt their technological projects to consider varying cultural and economic structures, ensuring more resilient social progress within development efforts. In practice, systems thinking approaches can be utilised to model the social, economic, political, and technological implications that influence the sustainability of an engineering project. This research assesses the utility of integrating systems thinking into Engineers Without Borders (EWB) project planning and development, thereby improving project impact and …

Working With Complexity: A Participatory Systems-Based Process For Planning And Evaluating Rural Water, Sanitation And Hygiene Services, Jeffrey P. Walters, Kate Neely, Karla Pozo

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Individuals working within the water, sanitation and hygiene for development (WASH) sector grapple daily with complex technical, social, economic, and environmental issues that often produce unexpected outcomes that are difficult to plan for and resolve. Here we propose a method we are calling the ‘Participatory Systems-based Planning and Evaluation Process’ (PS-PEP) that combines structural factor analysis and collaborative modeling to guide teams of practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders through a process of modeling and interpreting how factors systemically and dynamically influence sustained access to WASH services. The use and utility of the PS-PEP is demonstrated with a regional team of …

Exploring Agricultural Production Systems And Their Fundamental Components With System Dynamics Modelling, Jeffrey P. Walters, David W. Archer, Gretchen F. Sassenrath, John R. Hendrickson, Jon D. Hanson, John M. Halloran, Peter Vadas, Vladimir J. Alarcon

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Agricultural production in the United States is undergoing marked changes due to rapid shifts in consumer demands, input costs, and concerns for food safety and environmental impact. Agricultural production systems are comprised of multidimensional components and drivers that interact in complex ways to influence production sustainability. In a mixed-methods approach, we combine qualitative and quantitative data to develop and simulate a system dynamics model that explores the systemic interaction of these drivers on the economic, environmental and social sustainability of agricultural production. We then use this model to evaluate the role of each driver in determining the differences in sustainability …

Planning Rural Water Services In Nicaragua: A Systems-Based Analysis Of Impact Factors Using Graphical Modeling, Jeffrey P. Walters, Paul S. Chinowsky

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

The success or failure of rural water services in the developing world is a result of numerous factors that interact in a complex set of connections that are difficult to separate and identify. This research effort presented a novel means to empirically reveal the systemic interactions of factors that influence rural water service sustainability in the municipalities of Darío and Terrabona, Nicaragua. To accomplish this, the study employed graphical modeling to build and analyze factor networks. Influential factors were first identified by qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing transcribed interviews from community water committee members. Factor influences were then inferred by graphical …