WSE1. An Evolutionary, System-of-Systems, Convergence Paradigm for Interdependent Societal Challenges
Lincoln, Monday
Motivation
Humans have made profound and irreversible changes to the Earth. Because Anthropocene systems are highly interdependent and dynamically evolving, often with accelerating rates of cultural and technological evolution, the ensuing family of societal challenges (e.g., climate change and impacts, renewable energy, adaptive infrastructure, disasters, pandemics, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, sustainability, resilience and equity) must be framed and addressed in an integrated manner. To catalyze the required societal transformations, an evolutionary, system-of-systems (SoS) convergence paradigm is needed to coordinate strategic interventions across multiple systems and scales.
Description
The need for coordination and integration across multiple systems to address multiple societal challenges is clear, but almost every aspect of the scientific, technological and educational enterprise works against achieving what is most urgently needed. Describing how the Anthropocene systems coevolved, and briefly illustrating how the ensuing societal challenges became tightly integrated across multiple spatial, temporal and organizational scales, we propose an evolutionary, system-of-systems approach as a convergence paradigm for the entire family of interdependent societal challenges of the Anthropocene. This convergence paradigm requires that social scientists, environmental scientists and engineers collectively and systematically decompose, characterize and then re-combine the geophysical, biophysical, sociocultural and sociotechnical systems needed to address these large-scale challenges. The workshop will cover the following primary elements:
• Basic Research on the nested evolutionary sequence of geophysical, biophysical, sociocultural and sociotechnical systems
• SoS Framework including process-level models, systems-level models and the use of systems modeling language (SySML) and hetero-functional graph theory (HFGT) to couple the various models into a common computational framework
• SoS Pedagogy that develops a common scientific language building on the linguistic foundations of SySML and HFGT
• SoS Decision-Support System focusing on stakeholder engagement, equity, participatory modeling, scenarios and deep uncertainty
• Application to City-Regions to inegratively address the family of societal challenges at the urban and regional scale
Organizers: John Little, Sondoss El Sawah, Tony Jakeman and Amro Farid