ABSTRACT
One of the most populous and environmentally sensitive regions in the world, the Persian Gulf is on the confluence of an exponentially growing number of two industries – nuclear power and seawater desalination plants – that is changing its land- and seascape. It is noted that recent technological disasters with severe environmental impact are primarily attributed to lack of human factors and safety culture considerations. The aim of this chapter is to identify interdependencies of human and organizational subsystems of multiple complex, safety-sensitive technological systems in the context of sustainability of an ecosystem and consider inevitable challenges imposed by the climate change. Building upon Rasmussen’s model, a macro-system integrative framework, based on the broader context of human factors engineering, is developed, which can be considered in this context as a “meta-ergonomics” paradigm, for the analysis of interactions, design of interoperability, and integration of decisions of major actors whose actions can affect safety and sustainability of the focused industries.
