Systems engineering knowledge and skills for water and environmental problems

ABSTRACT

Systems engineering is a discipline for organising problems and finding better solutions. The approach is ancient and practical in its origins, and has become more formal in the last century. Systems engineering usually involves assembling solutions that consist of diverse components to work effectively together, drawing from mechanics, science, and social science to better achieve explicit objectives. Because few problems can be solved by one person, many systems we engineer require the cooperation and involvement of thousands or millions of people, making social and political aspects central. This paper summarises some thoughts on formal and professional education for systems engineering and its application, including some historical successes and challenges for water and environmental problems. Perhaps the most single important aspect of applied system engineering is to organise the problem in a way that helps it to be more productively discussed and better solved.

KEYWORDS:

• System analysis
• education
• water
• environmental engineering

Acknowledgements

I am thankful to many inspiring forbearers in this field, too numerous to name, and many current and former students for helping me learn to think better about these problems and issues. Of these, I would like to single out Professors Colin Brown, Richard Palmer, and Brian Mar for their intellectual and engineering breadth, David Ford and Dan Sheer for their insights, humour, and practicality, my father (who gave me my first book by Raiffa), and my mother, who blessed and cursed me with, ‘if you see something that needs to be done, do it.’ Reviewer comments also improved this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Jay Lund is Co-Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences and a Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California – Davis. He has long enjoyed many aspects of water and environmental management and policy, usually trying to integrate economics and operations research with traditional engineering. He has advised over 140 graduate students, including 15 who are faculty at research universities globally, and has over 400 publications and reports. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.