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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Systems Thinking As A Design Process, Elizabeth Lockwood Mar 2019

Systems Thinking As A Design Process, Elizabeth Lockwood

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

During my master’s degree I analyzed sustainable practices in the built environment. What came from that work was a deep level of understanding that the current practices and rating systems appeared to be technical approaches to a larger system at play. I realized I have a gift to see hidden connections and find links between systems. Currently I use systems mapping as part of the design process to unearth the hidden elements in a system. I believe it is important to understand where designers, clients and stakeholders can insert themselves into a system. Part of this understanding is having empathy …


Civic Ecology: Living Community Systems For Sustainability, Tim Smith Nov 2012

Civic Ecology: Living Community Systems For Sustainability, Tim Smith

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Civic Ecology is a stakeholder-driven, whole systems framework for creating sustainable communities. The framework focuses on empowering citizens of all ages, cultures, and abilities to envision, create, and manage their community’s unique “software” -- the integrated energy, nutrient, water, waste, material, and food systems, as well as economic flows and cultural interactions that animate their place. Exploring and supporting these flows allows communities to enhance their local wealth (environmental, economic, and social), resilience, and competitiveness, and help them take control of designing and managing their future through collaboration and innovation. The Civic Ecology framework can be the foundation upon which …


Ecosystem Services: The Making Of A Metaphor We Live (?) By, Richard B. Norgaard Feb 2012

Ecosystem Services: The Making Of A Metaphor We Live (?) By, Richard B. Norgaard

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

What started as a humble metaphor to help us think about our relation to nature has become integral to how we are addressing the future of humanity and the course of biological evolution. The metaphor of nature as a stock that provides a flow of services is insufficient for the difficulties we are in or the task ahead. Indeed, combined with the mistaken presumption that we can analyze a global problem within a partial equilibrium economic framework and reach a new economy project-by-project without major institutional change, the simplicity of the stock-flow framework blinds us to the complexity of the …


Systems Views Of The Economics Of Sustainable Development, Joshua Hughes Apr 2011

Systems Views Of The Economics Of Sustainable Development, Joshua Hughes

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

The mainstream economics of the 20th century (and now 21st century) has often failed to predict what will happen--or explain what has happened--in the real world, even with (or because of?) an ever-increasing reliance on quantitative and computational methods. Since the mid-20th century a number of people part of, or closely associated with, the systems community--economists among them--have provided insights about what is wrong with "traditional" economics. Systems science offers a number of alternative methods for understanding economic systems that take heed of these criticisms, especially in the context of sustainable development. Yet, while promising, few of these alternatives …


Understanding, Modeling And Valuing Ecosystem Services, Robert Costanza Oct 2010

Understanding, Modeling And Valuing Ecosystem Services, Robert Costanza

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Ecosystem services (ES) are the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems (in combination with other inputs) to human well-being. An ES-based approach can assess the trade-offs inherent in managing humans embedded in ecological systems. Evaluating trade-offs requires both an understanding of the biophysical magnitudes of ES changes that result from human actions, as well as an understanding of their impact on human well-being, broadly conceived. This talk discusses the state of the art of ES assessment, valuation, and modeling, including the potential of integrated ecological economic modeling. Valuation is about assessing trade-offs – not necessarily about trades (exchanges) in markets …