Duration
7 weeksWeekly study
10 hours100% online
How it works
Reaching UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Systems Thinking
Progress global goals and the 2030 agenda through systems thinking
Tackling the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 may seem like a tall feat. However, organisations like the University of Bergen are helping make this agenda feel more possible.
On their seven-week, online short course, you’ll learn a fundamental approach to problem-solving, called systems thinking, to help the planet attain these SDGs. Gain tools for systems thinking and modelling before applying what you’ve learned in practical simulations.
Equipped with practical tools and insights, you’ll be prepared to contribute to achieving the UN’s SDGs, and making a meaningful impact on global resource management, policy, and the planet.
Approach sustainability with a holistic approach
Rather than focusing on individual parts of a problem in isolation, systems thinking emphasises looking at the relationships and interactions behind these components.
You’ll delve into this methodology, and learn how to visualise and analyse these interactions through dynamic systems models.
Explore sustainable development and resource management through practical simulations
Next, you’ll apply the tools and methodologies you’ve learned to real-world environmental problems. This includes issues relating to fisheries, climate change, energy, water, and agriculture.
These simulations will challenge you to implement sustainable solutions to the circular economy, build resilience during emergencies, and enhancing decision making through participatory systems thinking.
Learn from sustainability experts at the University of Bergen, five other universities, and from your fellow students
The course was funded by EU’s Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships programme. You’ll join a community of like-minded learners hoping to progress the sustainability of our planet from all over the world.
Syllabus
Week 1
Tools for systems thinking and modelling
Introduction
Overview of Week 1
Causal loop diagrams (CLDs)
Causal loop diagrams provide a map of how "everything influences everything". The diagram represents cause and effect relationships that form feedback loops. As such, it helps organize discussions about the causes of change.
Stock and flow diagrams (SFDs)
While causal loop diagrams show how variables influence each other, they do not say anything about how variables change. Does the cause have an instantaneous effect or does the effect need time to materialize?
Models and simulations
Computer models complement the mental models we use when making decisions. While stock and flow diagrams portray the structure of models, simulations require descriptions of how variables influence each other.
A recipe for problem oriented systems thinking
A recipe with five steps guides you through your analysis of a problem and your search for policies to solve the problem.
Where can you learn more about System Dynamics Modeling and analysis.
Find out where you can learn more about how to analyze dynamic systems.
Week 2
Natural resources management: fisheries and climate
Introduction
The video gives an introduction to WEEK 2.
Heuristics and biases
Heuristics is short for using rules-of-thumb or hunches when making decisions. When problems become complex we all resort to heuristics. As one may expect, the results can be biased and different from the best outcome.
Manage a fishing company with property rights
In this activity you will manage a fishing company using a simulator. You will find the task quite complicated. Thus, you may ask yourself how well policy makers understand the dynamics of fisheries.
The funnel and glass analogy for renewable resources
A funnel and glass analogy demonstrates the dynamics of large number of renewable resources. A stock and flow diagram highlights the dynamic similarity between different resources.
Managing fisheries
1. How did experienced people manage the fishery simulator? 2. How has real fisheries been managed? 3. How could fisheries be managed better and more fair? 4 .How has fishery policies developed over time?
Managing the climate
Can the problem of climate change be explained by the general model for renewable resources? If so, are you able to manage the climate? Do most people understand? Are there particular complexities?
A deeper understanding of the climate problem
This activity gives a deeper understanding of the climate problem and an illustration of a serious misperception.
Where can you learn more about Natural Resources Management
Go to the next step
Week 3
Interactions between water, food, and energy
Introduction to Week 3
Welcome to Week 3
Land Use Decisions
Farmers may alter the land-size they cultivate over seasons regarding the profitability of the agricultural activity and availability of the resources they exploit, which may bring further impacts in return over long-terms.
Irrigation efficiency
Irrigation technology dictates the rates of water losses throughout application of water over the field. Farmers aim to improve their technological infrastructures to minimize the water loss and to use water efficiently.
Commons problem
It is easy to imagine that there will be a commons problem if many farmers extract water from the same water reservoir.
Week 4
Why does it take so long to solve problems like climate change?
Introduction
It takes time to reduce GHG emissions and the exploitation of other natural resources. We look at the roles of research and development, substitution, and fair policies to stimulate change.
The urgent need for an energy sector transformation
This activity reminds you of the urgent need to transform the energy sector. Recall the activity on managing the climate at the end of WEEK 2 and the need for proactive policies to stop climate change before it gets out of hand.
Energy transformation
Production capacities that make use of GHG emitting technologies must be substituted with capacities and technologoes that emit little or no GHGs.
Policies to speed up substitution
Policies are needed to speed up the transition to production capacity that has little or no GHG emissions. Economists point to emission taxes as the most efficient policy. However, taxes require support from other policies.
Testing climate policies with the EN-ROADS model.
In this activity, you get to try out different ways and policies to reduce GHG-emissions. Your trials are followed up by a quiz.
Week 5
Sustainable production and consumption
Introduction
Welcome to Week 5! You will learn about key concepts, frameworks and strategies to explore sustainable consumption and production issues, focusing on the application of systems thinking and modelling tools.
Key concepts and approaches for sustainable consumption and production
Here you find an introduction to the sustainable consumption and production field. It covers key concepts, schools of thought, historical developments, as well as commonly used methods and tools.
A systems thinking and modelling approach to consumption and production
This activity explores cause and effect relationships that drive development. It distinguishes between stocks and flows to capture the details of the "take-make-waste" model, delays, and a model of innovations.
Closing the loops: circularity strategies for sustainable consumption and production
This activity introduces strategies for promoting circularity and sustainability of production and consumption systems, including strategies for closing, narrowing and slowing material flows.
Case study for model-based analysis of SCP strategies
To better understand the challenges of SCP, simulation models are helpful. Here we illustrate the use of models to assess circular interventions with a case study in the mobility sector.
Enabling transitions towards sustainable consumption and production
We discuss three key enabling factors for successful transitions towards SCP : adopting a systemic vision for a safe and just space for humanity, tackling rebound effects, and implementing actions supporting achievement of SDGs.
Week 6
Emergencies and resilience
Introduction
Welcome to week 6 on emergencies and resilience. Take a look at the video in the link to get an overview of the content of this week.
Disasters and emergencies
Here you find an introduction to key concepts on disasters and emergencies. This activity includes concepts, historical trends, and insights on the cycle of disasters.
Modeling dynamics of emergencies and disasters
This activity provides two simple models to capture two key trends (e.g., growth and decay) in emergencies and disasters. It helps participants understand the stocks and flows required to generate the observed dynamics.
Resilience
This activity provides a brief introduction and definition of resilience and some key concepts. It includes an overview and the application of resilience to humanitarian response.
Key factors and concepts on resilience
This activity describes the key factors and concepts on resilience
Modeling dynamics of interruptions
This activity explores how a series of small interruptions combined can produce a catastrophic event. It also investigates the conditions required for system resilience to arise.
Summary
Week 6 covered topics associated with disasters and resiliency. The increase in disasters due to population growth, climate change, and other forcing mechanisms will require a global increase in emergency response efforts.
Week 7
The decision process for implementation of policies
Introduction
Welcome to week 7, where we discuss why implementation of policies for sustainability is often delayed, and how implementation can be supported.
Implementation challenges and individual decision making: heuristics and biases
Humans rarely make effective use of relevant information when making a decision. Instead we use heuristics, which reduce effort and decrease decision time. In new situations, heuristics often result in biased decisions.
Implementation challenges and collective decision-making: conflict, emotions and unequal distribution
One obvious way to compensate for individual mistakes, is to group of people responsible for a decision. A group can bring in more information but also introduce differences in goals, emotions and differential benefits and costs.
Debate, science and information
The role of science has traditionally been to provide knowledge. This has laid the foundation for innovations that made life better in many ways. In the public debate on sustainability challenges scientists to explore other roles.
Combining stakeholder participation and modelling to foster implementation
Using group model building, a facilitator helps a group to build a system dynamics model of their issue of concern. This activity goes into the rationale, process and results of group model building.
System dynamics and sustainability
Since the 1970s system dynamicists have studied sustainability. Modelling global and local sustainability issues has continued to the present. Management flight simulators allow users to experience these challenges first hand.
Deliberative democracy
Deliberative democracy is a way to give citizens an active role by inviting them to formulate policies. Experiments with different forms lead to a better understanding of pitfalls and potential results.
Institutional innovation and implementation
Group model building and deliberative democracy focus on a particular question and are organized as temporary projects. Planning agencies and think tanks are examples of permanent institutes that support governmental decisions.
Combining approaches: modelling for deliberative democracy
In this week we saw why individual and collective decision making are often suboptimal. To stop environmental degradation and harming communities, implementation of sustainability policies needs to speed up. What more can we do?
When would you like to start?
Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.
Available now
Learning on this course
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Evaluate policies that have been used for resource management
- Compare different sutainability problems and explore similarities
- Explore sustainability problems in simulators by making decisions over time
- Describe resource systems in terms of stocks and flows
- Describe resource systems in terms of feedback loops and nonlinearities
- Debate values and approaches to democratic decision-making
- Investigate circular economy and resilience
Who is the course for?
This course is ideal for anyone interested in sustainable development and utilising systems thinking methods to address SDG challenges. If you’re already active in the field, an educator, journalist, or policy-maker, you’ll also benefit from this course.
What software or tools do you need?
All you need is provided by the course.
Who will you learn with?
I am a professor emeritus at the University of Bergen. My field is System Dynamics, which is an interdisciplinary method to study how systems change over time and are influenced by policies.
I am a professor in the Institute of Geography, System Dynamics Group at the University of Bergen, Norway. I am an Industrial Engineering with MS and PhD in Environmental Sciences and Technology.
I am a professor in intervention methodology at Radboud University, the Netherlands. My research focuses on group decision support and system dynamics in among others sustainability and health care.
dr. Merel van der Wal works at Radboud University, where she focuses on participatory methods such as group model building in both her teaching and in her research.
Hi! I’m a researcher and educator passionate about exploring how complex systems work and how we can use data to make better decisions.
Professor of System Dynamics (SD) at USI, Switzerland, and Research Fellow at Cambridge Judge (CJBS), UK, focusing on SD modeling to overcome public health and sustainability challenges.
Eduardo Franco is a Research Fellow at the University of São Paulo, investigating complex system challenges related to sustainability, climate change, consumption and production systems, among others.
I work as a professor at Riga Technical University. My research interests are environmental impact assessment, sustainability, and the bioeconomy.
I am a PhD student at USI and my main interest is tackling complex sustainability issues using SD modelling and experiments, particularly those related to circular economy.
A PhD candidate at the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Bogazici University, focuses on socio-ecological issues, primarily coping with agricultural problems from systems thinking perspective
Associate Professor at NOVA University Lisbon. My research interests are focused on participatory modelling approaches for stakeholder engagement in environmental and sustainability issues.
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Ways to learn
Choose the best way to learn for you!
Subscribe & save
$244.99 for a whole year
Automatically renews
Develop skills to further your career
- Access to this course
- Access to 1,000+ courses
- Learn at your own pace
- Discuss your learning in comments
- Digital certificate when you're eligible
Cancel for free anytime
Buy this course
$109/one-off payment
Fulfill your current learning need
- Access to this course
- Learn at your own pace
- Discuss your learning in comments
- Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible
Limited access
Free
Sample the course materials
- Access expires 27 Mar 2025
Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades) Sale price available until 3 March 2025 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply. |
Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)
Sale price available until 3 March 2025 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.
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