11.522: UIS Research Seminar (Fall 2007) - Discussion notes
My interest is in exploring the interaction between Systems Dynamics and GIS, and to examine if this could be used to economically justify environmental policies in urban environments. System dynamics is a methodology for studying and managing complex feedback systems; by linking it to a GIS system it attempts to combine ecological inter-linkages with spatial data.
Systems dynamics is regularly used to model ecosystems, but there are few commercial models which allow this to be easily combined with GIS. I am interested in exploring how this can be done, in particular for models that deal directly with urban-environments. I propose that this would help to justify policies with multiple environmental benefits.
I will describe the fundamental principles behind systems dynamics and talk briefly about how these principles
could be combined with GIS.
Questions to consider:
Articles 3] and 4] are useful illustrations of this topic and most relevant. 1], 2] and 5] are more general while 6]
and 7] are books which discuss these topics.
References:
1] Dudley, R.G. (2005). A Generic Look at Payments for Environmental Services. Plan or Scam? International Systems Dynamics Conference, Boston http://www.csdnet.aem.cornell.edu/papers/Dudley%20Environmental%20Services.pdf
2] Saysel, A.K., Barlas Y., and Yenigun, O. (2002). Environmental sustainability in an agricultural
development project: a system dynamics approach. Journal of Environmental Management v.64
http://www.ie.boun.edu.tr/~barlas/BarlasSaysel02.pdf
Commercial Models:
3] American Forests (2002). Urban Ecosystem Analysis: Calculating the Value of Nature, New Orleans
http://www.americanforests.org/downloads/rea/AF_NewOrleans.pdf
4] Criterion Planners: Description of available tool
http://www.crit.com/documents/planuserguide.pdf
Further Reading:
5] Daly, H.E. and Townsend, K.N. (1993). Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics. Cambridge, MIT
6] Sterman, J. (2000). Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World. New York,
Irwin McGraw-Hill
(a) In what way do the author's suggest that neighborhood information systems help to 'empower' local communities? Are data, indicators, and analyses developed for city planning and management purposes very different from what is desired/needed by community groups? Where does GIS fit in?
(b) How does the MIT/MAPC 'middleware' approach differ from the traditional way of building the types of decision support tools that UI proposes? What applications are most promising to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach? Are web services necessary to accumulate and share local knowledge?
(c) What 'middleware' system architecture is practical today? What skill set is needed by whom in order for it to deliver useful assistance to community groups? What partners make sense? What role can/should a regional planning organization (such as MAPC) play?
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