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Sustainability
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Modelling Approaches to Support Decision Making
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Modelling Approaches to Support Decision Making

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2019) | Viewed by 15705

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Fabio Boschetti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
2. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
Interests: ecological modelling; management of natural resources; decision making
Dr. Magnus Moglia

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CSIRO Land and Water, Clayton South, VIC 3169, Australia
Interests: urban water management; complex adaptive systems; strategic foresight; integrated assessments; resilience
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A number of modelling approaches are available to support the sustainable management of ecological, urban, social and economic systems. These modelling approaches range from highly complex computer models simulating the dynamics of full ecosystems and large cities, to simpler system dynamic and network models, to participatory models which directly involve stakeholders and key players in the modelling process. Nevertheless, the adoption and impact of models in the decision-making process lags somehow behind for a number of reasons which range from decision-makers’ poor appreciation of the nature of modelling, to low acceptance of or trust in models, to the challenge of finding a formal role for models within well-established decision-making procedures.

This Special Issue focuses on the interface between modelling and decision-making with special emphasis of determinants of success or lack of. Both theoretical and case study studies are welcome which specifically address:

  • Nature of the modelling
    • The types of model employed
    • The reasons for undertaking the modelling activity
    • The expected role of models in the decision-making process
    • How decision-makers and stakeholders interacted with the model and model results
    • How labour intensive the modelling activity was
  • Empirical foundation
    • The theoretical and empirical basis of the model
    • What approach was followed for model validation
  • Monitoring and evaluation of success
    • How success (or lack of) was measured
    • How model use and results were communicated to decision-makers and stakeholders
    • How trust in model use was fostered and evaluated
    • What you would do differently next time

Dr. Fabio Boschetti
Dr. Magnus Moglia
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ecological modelling
  • decision making
  • urban and socio-economic

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 3505 KiB  
Article
Coming to Action: Operationalizing City Resilience
by Marta Iturriza, Josune Hernantes and Leire Labaka
Sustainability 2019, 11(11), 3054; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11113054 - 30 May 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3300
Abstract
There is an urgent need to build city resilience in order to face upcoming foreseen and unforeseen disasters more holistically, economically and collaboratively. Population trends mean that people are moving to urban areas and the traditional approach to crisis management is becoming obsolete [...] Read more.
There is an urgent need to build city resilience in order to face upcoming foreseen and unforeseen disasters more holistically, economically and collaboratively. Population trends mean that people are moving to urban areas and the traditional approach to crisis management is becoming obsolete as it is no longer able to deal with the new challenges that are emerging such as social dynamics or climate change. In this context, there are numerous studies and strategies that define how to build city resilience and consequently sustainable cities. However, decision-makers have trouble putting the knowledge in the studies and strategies into practice, as they find this information to be too abstract or far from their daily activities. More practical tools are needed to facilitate the operationalization of city resilience and familiarize decision makers with the concept. To that end, this paper presents both a qualitative and quantitative toolkit that enables decision makers to study, understand and train themselves to operationalize city resilience properly. This toolkit is composed of two complementary tools, namely the Resilience Maturity Model (RMM) and a serious game called City Resilience Dynamics (CRD). The paper also discusses the key points that led to a useful, trustworthy and flexible toolkit that decision-makers can use in building city resilience. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modelling Approaches to Support Decision Making)
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24 pages, 2622 KiB  
Article
An Integral Approach to the Modeling of Information Support for Local Sustainable Development—Experiences of a Serbian Enabling Leadership Experiment
by Ksenija Lalović, Jelena Živković, Uroš Radosavljević and Zoran Đukanović
Sustainability 2019, 11(9), 2675; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11092675 - 10 May 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3817
Abstract
Collaborative strategic decision making has to be widely informed, communicated and knowledge-based in order to innovate transformations toward local and global sustainability. It is unimaginable that this process could be effective without computer-aided information support, but the research indicates the utilization constraints within [...] Read more.
Collaborative strategic decision making has to be widely informed, communicated and knowledge-based in order to innovate transformations toward local and global sustainability. It is unimaginable that this process could be effective without computer-aided information support, but the research indicates the utilization constraints within human capacities to recognize their usability and usefulness. These constraints seem to be even more challenging within the intensively transitional social contexts, such as Serbia. We argue that understanding the relationships between sustainability, governance, and planning in a specific social context has profound importance to gain usefulness of information support and to ensure its increasing utilization. Identifying the practical path of information support modeling requires an operational framework that encompasses innovative and socially valid initiatives. Therefore, an integral theory framework was chosen to comprehend all social influences on the information support of successful utilization. This article presents the integral framework of the information support’s conceptual setting, which was used to build up community-based collaborative action research (CBCAR) as a transformative social learning process that enables information support utilization, and it was tested in six municipalities of Serbia. The implementation of pilot territorial information support (TIS) initiatives resulted in continuous and proactive local community efforts in information support development and usage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modelling Approaches to Support Decision Making)
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12 pages, 1356 KiB  
Article
Application of Game Theory to Conflict Management in a Construction Contract
by Beata Grzyl, Magdalena Apollo and Adam Kristowski
Sustainability 2019, 11(7), 1983; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11071983 - 3 Apr 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4986
Abstract
Interest has recently grown in the application of game theory (GT) to solve a number of diverse problems in the field of construction. The use of GT by a general contractor (GC) of construction works to indicate the best strategy leading to winning [...] Read more.
Interest has recently grown in the application of game theory (GT) to solve a number of diverse problems in the field of construction. The use of GT by a general contractor (GC) of construction works to indicate the best strategy leading to winning court proceedings in a situation of conflict with investor (IN), has not been investigated until now. Thus the aim of this paper is to indicate the optimal strategy from the GC viewpoint in a conflict situation with the IN. The article presents a list of the most common causes of conflict between parties of a construction work contract, defines the background of the problem and the cause of the dispute, and subsequently the authors generate a theoretical model of the game. Based on the analyzed game model, the expected payoffs for players were calculated and the probability boundary value determined in making the GC apply the indicated strategy. The study results show that while the probability of issuing a judgment favorable for the GC is at least equal to 0.69 it is justified to use an aggressive strategy. The analysis also confirms that from the financial perspective, litigation in most cases of conflicts in the area of construction should be the ultimate choice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modelling Approaches to Support Decision Making)
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19 pages, 2142 KiB  
Article
Urban Comprehensive Water Consumption: Nonlinear Control of Production Factor Input Based upon the C-D Function
by Kebai Li, Tianyi Ma, Tom Dooling and Guo Wei
Sustainability 2019, 11(4), 1125; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041125 - 21 Feb 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2838
Abstract
Utilizing the urban water demand function and the Cobb-Douglas (C-D) production function, an economic control model for the multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear system was designed and implemented to describe urban comprehensive water consumption, where the urban water demand function was expressed as the product [...] Read more.
Utilizing the urban water demand function and the Cobb-Douglas (C-D) production function, an economic control model for the multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear system was designed and implemented to describe urban comprehensive water consumption, where the urban water demand function was expressed as the product of the number of water users and per capita comprehensive water consumption, and the urban water supply function was expressed as a C-D production function. The control variables included capital investment and labor input for the urban water supply. In contrast to the Solow model, Shell model and aggregate model with renewable labor resources, the proposed model eliminated value constraints on investment and labor input in the state equations and hence avoided the difficulty in applying these models to urban water supply institutions. Furthermore, the feedback linearization control design (FLCD) method was employed to accomplish stability of the system. In contrast to the optimal control method, the FLCD method possesses an explicit solution of the control law and does not require the solution of a two-point boundary value problem of an ordinary differential equation, making the method more convenient for application. Moreover, two different scenarios of urban water consumption, one for the growth period and the other for the decline period, were simulated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modelling Approaches to Support Decision Making)
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