TGRR Seminar Bi-Monthly Series – June – Featuring Khalid Saeed

This bi-monthly series provides perspectives from leading global researchers on how systems science and data science can contribute to transformative water research. Join us next week for a one-hour TGRR seminar series presentation by Dr. Khalid Saeed. A 20-minute Q&A session will follow Dr. Saeed’s 40-minute presentation.

Khalid Saeed is a professor of economics and system dynamics at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and is widely recognized for his work on the interface of economics and system dynamics. He has published two books and numerous articles on various methodological, developmental, and management agendas, including sustainable agriculture, poverty alleviation, political instability, supply chain management, and system dynamics modeling. His current focus is on the operationalization of economic policy so it can be implemented through available managerial roles.

This presentation will go over the accounting and explanatory systems in modeling and apply the process to a simple water budget problem concerning urban management. As described by Dr. Saeed, water and money are quite similar in nature – homogenous, measurable, and conserved in a system of reservoirs and flows. No wonder hydrologists use the term ‘budget’ when discussing watersheds, town water, and wastewater systems. The analogue computers mimic stocks and flows when modeling electrical, financial, and water resource issues. Indeed, all watershed or waterfall systems consist of conserved stocks and flows, which can be easily modeled using system dynamics framework; however, the modeling effort must be addressed to specific policy agendas.