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Reaching UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Systems Thinking

Advance global sustainability with systems thinking. Solve real-world challenges through hands-on simulations and practical tools.

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Reaching UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Systems Thinking

  • 7 weeks

  • 10 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Introductory level

Find out more about how to join this course

  • Duration

    7 weeks
  • Weekly study

    10 hours
  • 100% online

    How it works
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    $244.99 for a whole yearLearn more

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

    • Students sitting around a table with post-it notes on the table.

      Introduction

      Overview of Week 1

    • The diagram uses arrows to shows how births and deaths influence the size of a population. The populaton in turn influences births and deaths. When the population approaches the carrying capacity, crowding influences births and deaths.

      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.

    • The stock and flow diagram has the same links between variables as the causal loop diagram. It differs in that the populaton is represented by a rectangle into which there is a flow of births and an outflow of deaths. Other variables have circles.

      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?

    • The graph shows how the population increases towards the carrying capacity. First the pupulation incresreases increasingly, then it increases decreasingly.

      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.

    • Tekst saying Follow P'HAPI and be happy, where P'HAPI is an abbreviation for the five steps in the recipe.

      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.

    • This picture shows the window of the Stella Architect simulation program where model are built. The picture shows an upper row of icons, a model with stock, flows, and links denoted by arrows. On the right-hand side is a window which shows an equation.

      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

    • Agriculture in Tuscany Italy

      Introduction

      The video gives an introduction to WEEK 2.

    • Drawing of Munch's screem with texts: Complex, solution now, deadline, how?, and fired?

      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.

    • Picture of fishing boat with text: Fishery Simulator

      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.

    • Picture of juice flowing through a funnel into a glass

      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.

    • Headline from the Independent reporting overfishing.

      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?

    • Person sitting in a deserted field

      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?

    • Photo showing windmills and solar cells

      A deeper understanding of the climate problem

      This activity gives a deeper understanding of the climate problem and an illustration of a serious misperception.

    • This picture show a fishing in actions with a flock of seagulls flying around the boat.

      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

    • Picture showing landscape with flat farm land

      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.

    • Application of Sprinkler Irrigation on a farmland.

      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?

    • Picture of a powersttion with cooling towers and grid lines

      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.

    • Forrest area where trees are being harvested

      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.

    • Solar panels and wind mills that emit hardly any GHGs in use.

      Energy transformation

      Production capacities that make use of GHG emitting technologies must be substituted with capacities and technologoes that emit little or no GHGs.

    • Person filling gasoline with no tax?

      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.

    • The figure shows the interface of the EN-ROADS model interface.

      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

    • Week introduction

      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.

    • General photos to illustrate life cycle thinking, environmantal thinking, and decoupling

      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.

    • The illustration repeats the acitivty title, and show the phrases: stock and flows, linear production systems, and consumption systems

      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.

    • Image with the following texts: Closing the loops: circularity stragegies for sustaiable consumption an production

      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.

    • Image with the text: Case study for model-based analysis of SCP strategies

      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.

    • Pictures and text: Achieving SG 12 targets, tackling rebound effects, and a vision for SCP within the doughnut

      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

    • A decorative image with the title of resilience and emergencies

      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.

    • Search and Rescue after an earthquake

      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.

    • Firefighters in a search and rescue mission

      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.

    • Plant breaking through a crack in the ground

      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

    • resilience of group of people in community devastated by earthquake

      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.

    • https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-blame-game/202001/fostering-resilience-israeli-style

      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

    • Picture of ongoing meeting

      Introduction

      Welcome to week 7, where we discuss why implementation of policies for sustainability is often delayed, and how implementation can be supported.

    • Person thinking hard

      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.

    • Decision making group

      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.

    • Students discussing

      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.

    • Facilitating a group with visualization

      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.

    • Graphs over time on resources, population, food and industrial output per capita, and pollution

      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 in action. Copyright: The Hague academy for local governance

      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.

    • Sustainable development goal 17: partnerships for the goals

      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.

    • Mindmap of deliberative democracy

      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?

Erling Moxnes

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.

Ali Kerem Saysel

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.

Etiënne Rouwette

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.

Merel vanderWal

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.

Ali Akhavan

Hi! I’m a researcher and educator passionate about exploring how complex systems work and how we can use data to make better decisions.

Paulo Goncalves

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

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.

Jelena Pubule

I work as a professor at Riga Technical University. My research interests are environmental impact assessment, sustainability, and the bioeconomy.

Feyyaz Senturk

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.

Mehmet Can Tunca

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

Nuno Videira

Associate Professor at NOVA University Lisbon. My research interests are focused on participatory modelling approaches for stakeholder engagement in environmental and sustainability issues.

Who developed the course?

University of Bergen logo

University of Bergen

The University of Bergen (UiB) offers first-class education and cutting-edge research at our location in the city centre of Bergen, Norway.

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Develop skills to further your career

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  • 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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