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Tourism offers many economic benefits but can have long-lasting ecological effects when improperly managed. Tourism can cause overwhelming pressure on wastewater treatment systems, as in Belize, where some of the over 400 small islands (cayes) that were once temporary sites for fishermen have become popular tourist destinations. An overabundance of nitrogen, in part as a result of incomplete wastewater treatment, threatens human health and ecosystem services. The tourism industry is a complex and dynamic industry with many sectors and stakeholders with conflicting goals. In this study, a systems thinking approach was adopted to study the dynamic interactions between stakeholders and the environment at Laughing Bird Caye National Park in Belize. The project centered on nutrient discharges from the caye’s onsite wastewater treatment system. An archetype analysis approach was applied to frame potential solutions to nutrient pollution and understand potential behaviors over time. “Out of control” and “Underachievement” were identified as system archetypes; “Shifting the Burden” and ‘‘Limits to Success’’ were used to model specific cases. Based on these results, upgrading of the wastewater treatment system should be performed concurrently with investments in the user experience of the toilets, education on the vulnerability of the treatment system and ecosystem, and controls on the number of daily tourists. 

Household air pollution is a pervasive environmental health problem wherever access to cleaner fuels is poor. Despite numerous attempts to transition households away from polluting fuels, interventions are rarely sustainable. This intractability indicates that structural (i.e., systemic) dynamics act to maintain the status quo. In this case study of Ghana's Rural Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Promotion Program, our objectives were to 1) identify system structures affecting sustained fuel use, and 2) test strategies for improving intervention outcomes. To address these objectives, we applied a system dynamics approach, informed by a systematic literature review. A virtual simulation model was constructed to represent the implementation of the Rural LPG Program and its outcomes. By analyzing the model's structure and behavior, we proposed strategies that would improve the intervention's outcomes and tested the effectiveness of the strategies within the simulation model. Our results show that distributing two LPG cylinders to households (instead of one) contributed toward primary use of the fuel, whereas free weekly delivery of LPG (for up to four years) had limited long-term benefits and diminishing returns. Furthermore, reducing the time for users to perceive the benefits of cleaner fuels enhanced willingness-to-pay, and thereby helped to sustain higher rates of LPG use. This suggests that intervention planners should identify new users' expectations of benefits and proactively design ways to realize those benefits quickly (in a few weeks or less), while policy makers should support this as a design requirement in approval processes. 

Improved sanitation provides many benefits to human health and well-being and is integral to achieving Sustainable Development Goal Six. However, many nations, including most of sub-Saharan Africa, are not on track to meeting sanitation targets. Recognizing the inherent complexity of environmental health, we used systems thinking to study sanitation sustainability in Uganda. Our study participants, 37 sanitation actors in three rural districts, were engaged in interviews, group model building workshops, and a survey. The resulting model was parametrized and calibrated using publicly available data and data collected through the Uganda Sanitation for Health Activity. Our simulations revealed slippage from improved sanitation in all study districts, a behavior reflected in real interventions. This implies that systemic changes-changes to the rules and relationships in the system-may be required to improve sanitation outcomes in this context. Adding reinforcing feedback targeting households’ perceived value of sanitation yielded promising simulation results. We conclude with the following general recommendations for those designing sanitation policies or interventions: (1) conceptualize sanitation systems in terms of reinforcing and balancing feedback, (2) consider using participatory and simulation modeling to build confidence in these conceptual models, and (3) design many experiments (e.g., simulation scenarios) to test and improve understanding.