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Environmental and societal challenges are complex, interconnected, and ever-evolving, requiring more than isolated or siloed interventions to be addressed effectively. This talk introduces systems thinking as a framework for understanding the feedback loops, delays, and non-linearities that characterize these challenges. Drawing on examples from interdisciplinary research projects, the presentation explores how systems thinking and modeling tools can help negotiate a shared understanding of a challenge, highlight unintended consequences of interventions, identify leverage points, and support more resilient and adaptive policy design. The talk discusses various ways in which systems thinking and modeling can support the science-policy-society interface while recognizing the pitfalls and limitations of this approach.
About the speaker: Birgit Kopainsky is professor in System Dynamics at the University of Bergen and the director of the System Dynamics Group. She holds a PhD in agricultural economics from ETH Zurich and a master’s degree in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Zurich. Her research explores the role that system dynamics can play in facilitating transformation processes in social-ecological systems such as the transformation towards sustainable and resilient agri-food systems. She uses system dynamics simulation models to explore economic, social and environmental outcomes of resource use and to assess the effectiveness of proposed management and policy actions. She also facilitates participatory modeling processes that help integrate science-based knowledge and local knowledge so that stakeholders at different levels are better able to continuously test, learn about, and develop knowledge and understanding in order to cope with change and uncertainty. She conducts and supervises research both in Europe and in the Global South and works with diverse stakeholders at local, national and international level. She has been the PI or co-PI in large interdisciplinary projects that have received funding from a broad range of sources.
