Participatory Modelling for Resilient Futures


Book Description

Participatory Modelling for Resilient Futures: Action for Managing Our Environment from the Bottom-Up, Volume One provides an important contribution to environmental management by introducing an integrative framework for participatory research for better land use and natural resource planning, organized around compelling recent case studies. It is a valuable guide for the increasing number of students looking for solutions in sustainability science and also practitioners who are on the ground working with local communities to improve specific places. The book was developed in response to the need to provide a clear and synthetic account, in accessible and non-technical language, of the way in which innovative integrative research can help solve real world human-environment interaction problems at a range of levels and scales, e.g., participatory modelling to secure a sustainable future for a natural protected area, working with stakeholders to break the deadlock on renewable energy implementation in Europe or tackling social exclusion and reducing food carbon footprint through local agroecology schemes. - Makes modeling approaches accessible so environmental and natural resource managers can make more precise decisions, accounting for a positive and negative impacts of ecosystem changes - Provides recent real cases to demonstrate implementation of the concepts, allowing the reader to see how to bridge scientific research and societal needs in order to effectively translate knowledge into action - Provides an integrated perspective incorporating science, politics and society, as well as a toolbox of methodologies to enhance participation and engagement of key stakeholders




Resilient Urban Futures


Book Description

This open access book addresses the way in which urban and urbanizing regions profoundly impact and are impacted by climate change. The editors and authors show why cities must wage simultaneous battles to curb global climate change trends while adapting and transforming to address local climate impacts. This book addresses how cities develop anticipatory and long-range planning capacities for more resilient futures, earnest collaboration across disciplines, and radical reconfigurations of the power regimes that have institutionalized the disenfranchisement of minority groups. Although planning processes consider visions for the future, the editors highlight a more ambitious long-term positive visioning approach that accounts for unpredictability, system dynamics and equity in decision-making. This volume brings the science of urban transformation together with practices of professionals who govern and manage our social, ecological and technological systems to design processes by which cities may achieve resilient urban futures in the face of climate change.




Pioneering A Smart, Sustainable, And Resilient Future: Founder Stories And Business Models


Book Description

The Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition (LKYGBPC) is a biennial university startup challenge in Singapore which is organized by the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) at Singapore Management University. The LKYGBPC derives its name from Singapore's founding Prime Minister, who developed the country's defining business plan bringing Singapore onto the global stage. It is this spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation and ambition that the competition enshrines.This book is a practitioner's guide to the entrepreneurial journey of selected start-ups — from cradle to success. By reflecting on their personal stories, the book provides aspiring entrepreneurs with potential roadmaps on how they, too, can chase their dreams and experiment with various business models to achieve success. With real-life case studies from the finalists of the 10th Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition, Pioneering a Smart, Sustainable, and Resilient Future: Founder Stories and Business Models seeks to provide readers with the framework to elicit their own blueprint for a successful venture.




Resilient Futures


Book Description

Resilient Futures: System Dynamics, Tech Innovations, and Climate Resilience is a comprehensive guide to understanding and addressing environmental challenges. It integrates system dynamics, highlights innovative technologies, and provides actionable strategies for climate resilience and sustainable practices. The book serves to equip readers with the knowledge to navigate complexity, uncertainty, and environmental risks effectively. By synthesizing research, case studies, and practical insights, Resilient Futures provides a roadmap for building resilient systems and shaping a sustainable future. - Provides a comprehensive yet practical understanding of system dynamics through real-world case studies - Highlights transformative potential of AI, IoT, and blockchain in fostering climate resilience and sustainability - Emphasizes actionable strategies for building resilience at individual, community, and global levels using evidence-based recommendations




Ecological Modeling


Book Description

Ecological Modeling: An Introduction to the Art and Science of Modeling Ecological Systems, Volume 31, presents the skills needed to appropriately evaluate and use ecological models. Illustrated throughout with practical examples, the book discusses ecological modeling as both an art and a science, balancing the qualitative (artistic) side, with its foundations in common sense and modeling practice, against the quantitative (scientific) aspects of the modeling process. This book draws on the authors’ extensive experience in both teaching and using these techniques to provide readers with a practical, user-friendly guide that supports and encourages the appropriate, effective use of these tools. Provides readers with a commonsense understanding of the systems perspective and its foundations in general system theory Highlights the importance of a solid understanding of the qualitative aspects of the modeling process Facilitates the ability to appropriately evaluate and use ecological models Supports learning with a variety of simple examples to instill the desire and confidence to embark upon the modeling experience




The Water-Energy-Food Nexus


Book Description

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Optimization Models for Decision Making covers the discussion about water, energy, and food as a crucial resource for human well-being and for sustainable development. These resources are inextricable interrelated, therefore, to cover water, energy, and food demands in different sectors and at different scales, it must be considered several sources to produce resources even conventional or unconventional, and there must be considered the interlinkages of resources for a proper integration. This book will emphasize several issues that must be considered in the design of water-energy-food nexus systems such as the selection of technologies to produce water or energy, size of technologies and food required to cover nutritional demands. Therefore, in The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Optimization Models for Decision Making, mathematical models are presented for the design of water-energy-food nexus systems involving several strategies to account for issues like sustainable development, security of resources, interest in conflicts from stakeholders, and efficient allocation of resources. - Includes different optimization models for the integration of water-energy-food nexus - Considers sustainability criteria in the presented models - Helps readers understand different approaches for trade-off solutions - Presents general software that can be used in solving different problems







Creating Resilient Futures


Book Description

This open access edited volume critically examines a coherence building opportunity between Climate Change Adaptation, the Sustainable Development Goals and Disaster Risk Reduction agendas through presenting best practice approaches, and supporting Irish and international case studies. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted existing global inequalities and demonstrated the scope and scale of cascading socio-ecological impacts. The impacts of climate change on our global communities will likely dwarf the disruption brought on by the pandemic, and moreover, these impacts will be more diffuse and pervasive over a longer timeframe. This edited volume considers opportunities to address global challenges in the context of developing resilience as an integrated development continuum instead of through independent and siloed agendas.




Resiliency Models and Addressing Future Risks for Family Firms in the Tourism Industry


Book Description

Family-owned and family-run firms, which are mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, are important when it comes to tourist destinations. It is therefore essential to understand how family firms address future risks and the challenges they face as part of the tourism industry. Since family businesses play such an important role for the entire tourism industry, it is worthwhile to analyze this business type when it comes to organizational resilience. Further, the development of practical solutions from field or case studies are beneficial for creating valuable learning effects for both firms and destinations alike. The examination of one risk scenario and its successful or missing management might be beneficial to create useful learning effects for the future. Therefore, it is essential to understand contemporary issues and future challenges of family firms in the hospitality/service industry and to examine different perspectives at an individual, firm, and destination management level. Resiliency Models and Addressing Future Risks for Family Firms in the Tourism Industry provides an in-depth examination of tourism family firms, since these firms are essential for supplying solutions for challenges such as dealing with uncertainty, becoming or remaining resilient, and creating sustainable tourism destinations. The chapters address the challenges of sustainability and resilience in an uncertain world and connects knowledge from family business research to tourism research, focusing on hospitality. Highlighted topics include organization ambidexterity, pandemic risk, firm management and leadership, and technology use in firm operations. This book is essential for family firms, hotel management, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, tourism professionals, academicians, researchers, and students seeking the most advanced research on family firm’s resilience and risk management within the tourism industry.




Managing Complex Tasks with Systems Thinking


Book Description

This book is about improving human decision making and performance in complex tasks. Utilizing systems thinking approach, this book presents innovative and insightful solutions to various managerial issues in various domains including agriculture, education, climate change, digital transformation, health care, supply chains, and sustainability. Practical insights and operational causal models are systematically presented. The key features of the didactic approach of this book are core knowledge, numerous tables and figures throughout the text, system archetypes, and causal loop models. This book serves as a text for college and university courses on Systems Thinking for Management Decision Making in Complex Tasks. Researchers use the developed “causal models” to design and evaluate various decision-aiding technologies. It is used as a source of practical information for a broad community of decision-makers, researchers, and practitioners concerned with the issue of improving human performance in complex organizational tasks.