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Socio-technical scales in socio-environmental modeling: Managing a system-of-systems modeling approach.

ABSTRACT: System-of-systems approaches for integrated assessments have become prevalent in recent years. Such approaches integrate a variety of models from different disciplines and modeling paradigms to represent a socio-environmental (or social-ecological) system aiming to holistically inform policy and decision-making processes. Central to the system-of-systems approaches is the representation of systems in a multi-tier framework with nested scales. Current modeling paradigms, however, have disciplinary-specific lineage, leading to inconsistencies in the conceptualization and integration of socio-environmental systems. In this paper, a multidisciplinary team of researchers, from engineering, natural and social sciences, have come together to detail socio-technical practices and challenges that arise in the consideration of scale throughout the socio-environmental modeling process. We identify key paths forward, focused on explicit consideration of scale and uncertainty, strengthening interdisciplinary communication, and improvement of the documentation process. We call for a grand vision (and commensurate funding) for holistic system-of-systems research that engages researchers, stakeholders, and policy makers in a multi-tiered process for the co-creation of knowledge and solutions to major socio-environmental problems.

SUBMITTER: Iwanaga T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7537632 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Socio-technical scales in socio-environmental modeling: Managing a system-of-systems modeling approach.

Iwanaga Takuya T Wang Hsiao-Hsuan HH Hamilton Serena H SH Grimm Volker V Koralewski Tomasz E TE Salado Alejandro A Elsawah Sondoss S Razavi Saman S Yang Jing J Glynn Pierre P Badham Jennifer J Voinov Alexey A Chen Min M Grant William E WE Peterson Tarla Rai TR Frank Karin K Shenk Gary G Barton C Michael CM Jakeman Anthony J AJ Little John C JC

Environmental modelling & software : with environment data news 20201006

System-of-systems approaches for integrated assessments have become prevalent in recent years. Such approaches integrate a variety of models from different disciplines and modeling paradigms to represent a socio-environmental (or social-ecological) system aiming to holistically inform policy and decision-making processes. Central to the system-of-systems approaches is the representation of systems in a multi-tier framework with nested scales. Current modeling paradigms, however, have disciplinar ...[more]

PMID: 33041631

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Dataset Information

Socio-technical scales in socio-environmental modeling: Managing a system-of-systems modeling approach.

Publications

Socio-technical scales in socio-environmental modeling: Managing a system-of-systems modeling approach.

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