Environmental SIG Annual Meeting
Session Chair: Joseph Londa
Environmental and Natural Resource Group Meeting
A Monthly Meeting for Reviewing and Discussing System Thinking and Systems Dynamics presentations from Students and Practitioners on the topics of Energy, Water, Land Use (Agriculture & Food), and the Environment.
For the Month of April this meeting will be held at 7pm Eastern Time to better serve the Asian Community
Justin Connolly from www.deliberate.co.nz
“An Overview on En-Roads and a Discussion on its Ability to Move People to Act”
Submit a proposed presentation at https://airtable.com/shrXcSAqAeOo6MiMbContact
Joseph M. Londa
SDS Environmental SIG Leader
environment@systemdynamics.org
Environmental and Natural Resource Group Meeting
A Monthly Meeting for Reviewing and Discussing System Thinking and Systems Dynamics presentations from Students and Practitioners on the topics of Energy, Water, Land Use (Agriculture & Food), and the Environment.
Jake Jacobson and Len Malczynski of Mindseye Computing https://www.mindseyecomputing.com/
Will be the presenters for March addressing “New Mexico State Decarbonization Plan and Produced Water Model”
Submit a proposed presentation at https://airtable.com/shrXcSAqAeOo6MiMbContact
Joseph M. Londa
SDS Environmental SIG Leader
environment@systemdynamics.org
Environmental and Natural Resource Group Meeting
A Monthly Meeting for Reviewing and Discussing System Thinking and Systems Dynamics presentations from Students and Practitioners on the topics of Energy, Water, Land Use (Agriculture & Food), and the Environment.
Topics to be added in advance of the meeting or submit a proposed presentation
https://airtable.com/shrXcSAqAeOo6MiMb
Contact – Joseph M. Londa
SDS Environmental SIG Leader
environment@systemdynamics.org
Green Action Global Connection Zone
The event website: https://climateaction.works/
Roberto Pasqualino and the Transboundary Groundwater Resilience Network of Networks are confirmed speakers. En-ROADS will have multiple workshops.
What: The Green Action Global Connection Zone (online) will connect NGOs, activists and institutions working on the ground in North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania to protect our biodiversity. The online zone is a part of the CEPA Fair and a side event to the official COP15 Biodiversity conference taking place in Montreal from December 7-19.
The entire event will feature Indigenous ecological knowledge, stewardship and management, with Indigenous participation from around the world. The intention is to have broad land-based learnings shared with participants and attendees.
There will also be opportunities for interactive, hands-on activities, such as those offered by Biodiversity and Climate Fresks, to introduce a powerful and innovative way to learn more about the complex implications of biological diversity and climate change.
Our audience: action-oriented Indigenous groups and NGOs seeking to connect, strengthen ties, exchange knowledge and experience, to coalesce around concrete action.
We are seeking participants interested in networking with like-minded groups around the world, with the goal of working together to hold governments accountable to the objectives set at COP15, as well as pursuing our own biodiversity goals potentially set on this forum.
The format: workshops, meetings, presentations, and debates around major themes.
Online space will be available for exhibition booths, mainstage style featured guests and keynote speakers, small conference room discussions and presentations, and even a “rooftop” setting for casual networking.
When: Dec 11-12, 2022, continuously around the clock to accommodate all time zones
Programming on the main stage and in conference rooms will be periodic throughout the event.
Who: The event is co-organized by Climate Action Works/Peace Innovation Institute and the Global Greens. Associate co-organizers include MasseCritique, Ohneganos, the McGill Environment Student Society and other NGOs.
Where: The Bramble.Live platform
CLIMATE CAFE – CLIMATE FEEDBACK LOOPS
Fossil fuel emissions from human activity are driving up Earth’s temperature—yet something else is at work. The warming has set in motion nature’s own feedback loops which are raising temperatures even higher. The urgent question is: Are we approaching a point of no return, leading to an uninhabitable Earth, or do we have the vision and will to slow, halt, and reverse them?
Join them as former PBS producer Melanie Wallace and freelance filmmaker Bonnie Waltch discuss their series of five short films focused on climate feedback loops. Narrated by Richard Gere, the programs explain in detail how environmental feedback loops work and why they’re important to understand if we are to successfully address the warming of our planet. Bonnie & Melanie’s mission is to offer teachers around the world these educational films and supporting materials for free.
Environmental SIG June Meeting
ISDC 2021 Highlights: Modeling for Action in Environmental Health
ISDC 2021 Highlights: Modeling for Action in Environmental Health
The International System Dynamics Conference (ISDC) convenes practitioners who demonstrate what’s new and developing in their fields with System Dynamics. This section of the WiSDom Blog, “Conference Highlights,” asks system dynamicists to spotlight key presentations and innovations presented at the conference.
– Conference Highlights Editorial Team: Saras Chung, Will Glass-Husain, Jack Homer, Sara Metcalf, and Remco Peters with coordination by Christine Tang
This highlight by Martha McAlister shares a first-time conference attendee’s perspective on modeling for action in environmental health.

Modeling for Action in Environmental Health
When environmental risks remain unmitigated, they end up hurting our ability to lead healthy and productive lives. These risks are often concentrated where populations are the most marginalized, thereby creating or contributing to unjust health disparities. Environmental health and justice problems can be complex, as they intersect multiple domains (social, economic, political, legal, institutional, etc.) and may involve years or decades of lag time, starting from the accumulation of multiple exposures and ending in life-threatening chronic illnesses.
System Dynamics offers opportunities for modelers to engage with broad audiences to address environmental health and justice challenges. Modelers can elicit public or expert participation before, during, and after the modeling process to promote confidence in the results and to encourage holistic learning that goes beyond narrowly epidemiological approaches.
As a first-time attendee of the International System Dynamics Conference, I wanted to learn how System Dynamics is being used in the environmental health context and about the challenges of applying System Dynamics to such complex problems.
The first hint came during the Student-Organized Colloquium, where keynote speaker Dr. Josephine Musango stated that “engagement is crucial.” As the conference progressed, I heard several presenters talk about their use of participatory modeling to study global environmental and health issues.
Laurent Smets spoke about using group model building with virology experts to connect early vaccine research and development to the user requirements at the “last mile” in low- and middle-income countries.
Kelsey Werner described workshops with local community groups in India (organized by the Social Systems Design Lab at Washington University) to model factors affecting their use of less harmful liquefied petroleum gas (e.g., for cooking) in place of solid fuels like firewood or charcoal..
Others reported on using System Dynamics simulation interfaces that engage stakeholders. As Juliette Rooney-Varga put it, this requires translating well-informed scientific models into meaningful, recognizable intervention levers and outputs.
Allyson Beall King, presenting on her work with Tyler Opp, echoed this concept of scientific translation in describing their model of toxic sediments in Lake Coeur d’Alene. They wanted to make sure this model would not only satisfy scientists but also be fully accessible and transparent for the public.
I also learned from Daniel Kliem’s talk about how to involve experts in participatory modeling. He said that if a simulation was the ultimate goal, then one should “fail fast” by developing the quantitative model sooner rather than later. He also advised modelers to remember that we are the translators and integrators of others’ knowledge, and as such we should always give those experts the credit they are due.
This last point reminded me of something that the other Student-Organized Colloquium keynote speaker, Dr. Irene Headen, said about one of the strengths of System Dynamics: the process allows modelers to collect and integrate multiple perspectives on a single topic.
The conference is a heady experience for a first-time attendee like myself. Thinking about the presentations I attended, I realize that none precisely addressed environmental health and justice per se. But that doesn’t really matter, because the presenters made it easy to see how their experiences and insights have broad application, and I look forward to applying these ideas in my own work.
Martha McAlister – mcalisterm@usf.edu
Martha is a PhD student of Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. She studies the efficacy and sustainability of environmental health interventions. Martha’s participation in the International System Dynamics Conference was supported by USF NRT Strong Coasts (National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1243510). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, USF, or NRT Strong Coasts.
Check out the Society’s SIGs – including Environmental SIG and Health Policy SIG
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System Dynamics for Climate Change Mitigation
Integrated System Dynamics models of economy and environment have long been used for research and decision support for sustainability problems, starting with the seminal work of World Dynamics and Limits to Growth. In this seminar, we will discuss how such models support decision-making, stakeholder, and public engagement for climate change and sustainability problems. We will reflect on existing models and tools, such as Climate Interactive’s En-ROADS and Millennium Institute’s iSDG tool, and their use cases. We’ll also be discussing how the Climate Change Initiative at UMass Lowell uses System Dynamics tools to raise awareness on climate change.
With Juliette Rooney-Varga, Carolyn McCarthy, Sibel Eker, and Steve Arquitt
About the Presenters
Climate Interactive is an independent, not-for-profit think-tank that grew out of MIT Sloan in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Based on a long tradition of system dynamics modeling, our simulations and insights help people see connections, play out scenarios, and see what works to address climate change, inequity, and related issues like energy, health, and food.

Dr. Sibel Eker is currently a Senior Researcher at Climate Interactive and a Research Scholar at International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria. Her interdisciplinary research profile combines systems analysis and engineering, decision sciences, and social sciences, and her work brings systems thinking and uncertainty focus to climate change and sustainability problems with model-based approaches. Complementing her academic experience, she has worked with several stakeholders and policy actors such as UK DBEIS, World Bank, EIT-Climate KIC, governmental and private organizations. Dr. Eker obtained her Ph.D. degree in 2016, from Delft University of Technology, with a focus on dealing with uncertainties in the Dutch natural gas sector. Prior to joining IIASA, she worked at University College London on integrated decision making in housing, energy, and well-being; and at the Delft University of Technology on the resilience of the transport network in Bangladesh.
Millennium Institute (MI) is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization passionate about improving the welfare of individuals on every continent by working with stakeholders to meet the challenges of sustainable development.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, officially adopted by 193 countries, are envisioned as the world’s pathway to a sustainable future. The Goals are ambitious but the resources to achieve them are few. System dynamics models can help planners identify effective and cost-efficient combinations of interventions for progress toward the Goals. This presentation describes the Integrated Sustainable Development Goal (iSDG) model and its use in participatory planning for the SDGs.

Steven Arquitt, Ph.D. is a senior researcher and modeler with the Millennium Institute. He works with governments to develop plans for the UN Sustainable Development Goals using the iSDG System Dynamics model. Steve has worked on iSDG projects in Malawi, Namibia, and currently in Bhutan.
The Climate Change Initiative (CCI) is a UMass Lowell Research Center that informs and supports evidence-based climate action. Our research, education, and outreach foster a transition to a sustainable, resilient, and equitable society. Faculty collaborate on research, teaching, and community engagement activities; using a systems thinking framework to integrate across disciplines. We are committed to working with citizens, community organizations, and policymakers to ensure that our scholarly work benefits society directly.

Juliette N. Rooney-Varga is an expert on climate change and sustainability. She is the Director of the UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative and associate professor of Environmental Science.

Carolyn McCarthy is a Program Associate at the UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative where she develops and researches the learning impacts of simulation-based curriculum for low-income and first-generation-in-college students. Having previously guided strategic planning processes for cross-sector collaborative networks, her main interests are in the practical applications of systems thinking problem-solving for collective action. Carolyn earned a Master of Philosophy in System Dynamics at the University of Bergen, Norway, and a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree from the University of Vermont in Global Studies, Spanish, and Dance.