ABSTRACT
Systems thinking is fundamental to sustainability and is considered a threshold learning concept. This means that ‘systems thinking’ is key to understanding the challenges we face in sustainability but may be difficult and sometimes troublesome to learn and to master.
As humans, we are grappling with extremely complex problems, as summarised in previous chapters in this book and in the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the urgency of climate change. These are all complex systems which need to be understood as a whole, rather than as separate parts. Systems thinking gives us tools to understand, to model, and to predict future behaviour of these complex systems.
This chapter covers basic aspects of systems thinking, introducing the key concepts of components, interrelationships, and the system boundary. Mapping tools are described, together with two illustrative examples, and some basic system dynamics modelling is demonstrated. Using these tools, we can begin to understand the complex behaviour of social, environmental, and economic systems in response to human activity. This gives us some chance of mitigating the worst effects of climate change and understanding more fully many of the challenges we face in the sustainability transition.
