skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: System dynamics and sustainability: A research agenda for the coming decade(s)
With detrimental effects of climate change already here, deteriorated natural habitats, increased pollution of soils, air, and water, and appropriate action still lagging behind, work on sustainability that applies system dynamics is more urgent than ever. In July 2018, a number of researchers - mainly active in Europe - commenced an open dialogue on system dynamics and sustainability at emlyon business school in Lyon. The aim of that meeting was to assess how to increase system dynamics and sustainability research output and impact. Since then a network has emerged and, some members of the group have begun working on a number of collaborative initiatives around research, teaching, and grants. More ambitiously, discussions also have evolved around the value of more coordinated avenues for future system dynamics research. At the 2020 SD Conference in Bergen, we, the “SD&Sus Lyon Group”, would like to present some of our progress in our thinking so far. In this essay bundle, we present some of the ideas that we have developed on near future avenues for system dynamics research and applications in the domain of sustainability. The aim of this essay bundle is to initiate a dialogue about how the system dynamics community may achieve impact through coordinated accumulation of policy-relevant knowledge in the area of sustainability and to make progress on identifying those critical avenues.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1701062
PAR ID:
10281862
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
International System Dynamics Conference
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; (, ACM Transactions on Information Systems)
    Dialogue systems are designed to offer human users social support or functional services through natural language interactions. Traditional conversation research has put significant emphasis on a system’s response-ability, including its capacity to understand dialogue context and generate appropriate responses. However, the key element of proactive behavior—a crucial aspect of intelligent conversations—is often overlooked in these studies. Proactivity empowers conversational agents to lead conversations towards achieving pre-defined targets or fulfilling specific goals on the system side. Proactive dialogue systems are equipped with advanced techniques to handle complex tasks, requiring strategic and motivational interactions, thus representing a significant step towards artificial general intelligence. Motivated by the necessity and challenges of building proactive dialogue systems, we provide a comprehensive review of various prominent problems and advanced designs for implementing proactivity into different types of dialogue systems, including open-domain dialogues, task-oriented dialogues, and information-seeking dialogues. We also discuss real-world challenges that require further research attention to meet application needs in the future, such as proactivity in dialogue systems that are based on large language models, proactivity in hybrid dialogues, evaluation protocols and ethical considerations for proactive dialogue systems. By providing a quick access and overall picture of the proactive dialogue systems domain, we aim to inspire new research directions and stimulate further advancements towards achieving the next level of conversational AI capabilities, paving the way for more dynamic and intelligent interactions within various application domains. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development)
    Food system sustainability, and ways of measuring it, are widely explored and discussed in academic literature. Measurement efforts are challenging because food systems are inherently complex and multifaceted, spanning diverse components, indus­tries, sectors, and scales. Several systems of indica­tors and metrics have been proposed to measure sustainability; however, most existing research focuses either on narrow scales (e.g., farm level or within a single supply chain), expansive scales that can gloss over complexity (e.g., national or global assessments), or limited scopes (e.g., only consider­ing environmental factors). A gap in the literature is a holistic local or regional approach to food sys­tem sustainability that integrates components across the system at a regional scale. In this reflec­tive essay, we describe our development of a framework to measure and track sustainability in such systems. We use a tiered framework that includes five sustainability dimensions and a system of indices, indicators, and metrics that allows for the measurement of important food system charac­teristics in a feasible and reproducible way. We employ a collaborative, transdisciplinary, facilitated team science process to first propose, and then refine, a sustainability assessment framework, using the U.S. state of Vermont as a case study. This paper details our process and progress, as well as reflections on challenges and recommendations for other team scientists. We further propose a plan to implement the framework, collect data, and engage with community members. The experiences and findings described here serve as a foundation for our own team’s continued work, as well as a springboard for other similar research efforts. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Journal of Optics)
    Abstract Motivated by the profound impact of laser technology on science, arising from an increase in focused light intensity by seven orders of magnitude and flashes so short electron motion is visible, this roadmap outlines the paths forward in laser technology to enable the next generation of science and applications. Despite remarkable progress, the field confronts challenges in developing compact, high-power sources, enhancing scalability and efficiency, and ensuring safety standards. Future research endeavors aim to revolutionize laser power, energy, repetition rate and precision control; to transform mid-infrared sources; to revolutionize approaches to field control and frequency conversion. These require reinvention of materials and optics to enable intense laser science and interdisciplinary collaboration. The roadmap underscores the dynamic nature of laser technology and its potential to address global challenges, propelling progress and fostering sustainable development. Ultimately, advancements in laser technology hold promise to revolutionize myriad applications, heralding a future defined by innovation, efficiency, and sustainability. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; (, international symposium on automation and construction)
    One of the many ways in which automation may help the construction industry is on-site material management. This paper presents an automated process where materials are selected for staging by detecting construction progress from site images. The materials are then delivered to their respective workface locations by a robot. The effectiveness of the material selection process is assessed using a simulated and physical construction site. We demonstrate that our process is successful under a number of different conditions and environments. Our system contributes to the feasibility of autonomously managing materials on a construction site and reveals potential avenues for future research. 
    more » « less
  5. ; (, Biological Reviews)
    ABSTRACT Novel biotic interactions in shifting communities play a key role in determining the ability of species' ranges to track suitable habitat. To date, the impact of biotic interactions on range dynamics have predominantly been studied in the context of interactions between different trophic levels or, to a lesser extent, exploitative competition between species of the same trophic level. Yet, both theory and a growing number of empirical studies show that interspecific behavioural interference, such as interspecific territorial and mating interactions, can slow down range expansions, preclude coexistence, or drive local extinction, even in the absence of resource competition. We conducted a systematic review of the current empirical research into the consequences of interspecific behavioural interference on range dynamics. Our findings demonstrate there is abundant evidence that behavioural interference by one species can impact the spatial distribution of another. Furthermore, we identify several gaps where more empirical work is needed to test predictions from theory robustly. Finally, we outline several avenues for future research, providing suggestions for how interspecific behavioural interference could be incorporated into existing scientific frameworks for understanding how biotic interactions influence range expansions, such as species distribution models, to build a stronger understanding of the potential consequences of behavioural interference on the outcome of future range dynamics. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email