Co-creating solutions to complex urban problems with collaborative systems modelling - insights from a workshop on health co-benefits of urban green spaces in Guangzhou

ABSTRACT

Increasingly complex challenges and systemic risks in urban development and planning require systems methods and solutions. This policy brief summarizes the experience of a collaborative systems modelling workshop on the health co-benefits of urban green spaces in Guangzhou, China. The workshop shows that collaborative systems modelling has the potential to surface new, integrated, and sustainable solutions for complex problems, such as urban development, spatial planning, governance, and climate change. For the collaborative systems modelling approach to succeed, it is critical to have the participation of diverse interdisciplinary stakeholders for the co-creation of solutions. Further, while noting that collective learning and capacity building take time, we recommend policymakers apply this method where and when possible, for example in urban planning projects, to address complex problems in cities while at the same time ensuring the representation of the needs and visions of stakeholders in the modelling process. Collaborative systems modelling can be considered a contribution to intelligent urban systems governance.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaborative systems modelling
• complex urban problems
• integrated solutions
• intelligent governance
• urban planning
• urban green spaces

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. FAIR data principles: Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of data. See https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/.

2. The methodological approach has been developed by the German Biocybernetician Frederic Vester and has been applied, together with his computer based tools ‘Sensitivity Model® Prof. Vester’ in many research and practical projects until now: Systems Sciences (Leonard et al. 2021), Mobility and Transportation (Wolf et al. 2012, Wulfhorst et al. 2013), Planning and Political Decision Making (Rusong et al. 2014, Suberi 2021), Management and Biocybernetics, Insurance & Risk, Data, Design (Jonas 2018, Industry, Innovation, Production, Translational Sciences (Salevsky and Mueller 2011, Behr 2020), Research in Genetics and Nutrition, Forestry and Climate Change, Security and Defense, Simulation in Education and Learning.

3. Due to the exceptional circumstance of the pandemic and thanks to the advancement of digital technology, but also to facilitate the international collaboration, the workshop took place completely online, supported by the special collaborative features of the web-based System Logics® software tools instead of a conventional workshop experience, partly computer supported, and partly using analog whiteboards, paper and post-its.

4. Data of population density and UGS size per capita are of 2016; data source: Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics and Bureau of Forestry and Landscaping

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jieling Liu

Jieling Liu has a background in political sciences and journalism. She did her doctoral research at the interdisciplinary Program in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Her research interests are in institutional change, urban common-pool resources, governance and policy-making. She studied the institutional factors that influence local governments to promote, or sacrifice, the ecosystem services of urban ecological resources, under the context of climate change in Guangzhou City, China. In Portugal Jieling worked at the Center of Engineering and Development (CEiiA) on a blockchain-based platform that rewards carbon neutral mobility in cities.

Franz Gatzweiler

Franz Gatzweiler is Professor at the Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Director of the International Science Council’s global interdisciplinary science programme on “Urban Health and Wellbeing: a Systems Approach”. He has a degree in agricultural economics from the University of Bonn and received his habilitation in resource economics from Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. He is external affiliated faculty of the Ostrom Workshop, Indiana University and senior fellow at the Center for Development Research, Bonn University, Germany.

Simon Hodson

Simon Hodson is Executive Director of CODATA. He is an expert on data policy issues and research data management. He has contributed to influential reports on Current Best Practice for Research Data Management Policies and to the Science International Accord on Open Data in a Big Data World. He chaired the European Commission’s Expert Group on FAIR Data which produced the report Turning FAIR into Reality (https://doi.org/10.2777/1524). He is currently vice-chair of the UNESCO Open Science Advisory Committee, tasked with drafting the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.

Gabriele Harrer-Puchner

Gabriele Harrer-Puchner is founder & CEO of System Logics T.T. GmbH and expert in Systems Modelling. She studied geology and has a broad basis in natural sciences. After 18 years of close scientific co-operation with Prof. Frederic Vester and his Study Group for Biology and Environment, Munich, she worked 10 years with Prof. Fredmund Malik in St.Gallen. Among others, she is member of the International Society of Systems Sciences ISSS; German Associaton for Human Ecology DGH; Visiting Professor at Capital University of Economies and Business, Bejing, China; Associated Member of the mobil.LAB Doctoral Research Group, Technical University Munich.

Giles B. Sioen

Giles B. Sioen is co-Lead for Research and Innovation based in the Future Earth Global Hub Japan, Research Associate at the National Institute for Environmental Studies of Japan, and chair of the KU Leuven Alumni Chapter Japan. He works on the research and innovation portfolio with colleagues from across the Future Earth community, coordinates the Future Earth Urban and Health Knowledge-Action Networks, conducts individual research, and supports a range of domestic projects and activities. His research focuses on the development of a transdisciplinary system-based guideline to reduce the impact of climate change and other disasters on cities and health.

Mamello Thinyane

Mamello Thinyane is a Principal Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute in Macau, where he leads research on the Smart Citizen Cyber Resilience project. This project is undertaking research and developing tools to enhance the resilience of citizens and civil society stakeholders against adverse cyber incidents in smart digital futures. He also leads research on Data and Sustainable Development, formerly the Small Data Lab, which critically investigates the sustainable development data assemblages and develops artefacts to support the active participation of civil society stakeholders in these data ecosystems.

Ronit Purian

Ronit Purian is manager of Tel Aviv University’s Research Center for Cities and Urbanism. She is interested in the behavioural, social and public aspects of technology management and information systems; data mining, and the design of complex systems. Her PhD is in technology management and information systems and she has an MA degree in psychology and BA in psychology and multidisciplinary cognitive studies.

Virginia Murray

Virginia Murray is Head of Global Disaster Risk Reduction where she works on knowledge, partnerships, capacity development and implementation for the 2015 UN Landmark agreements of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and other WHO and UN agreements. She is currently co-chair of the recently developed WHO Thematic Platform Health and Disaster Risk Management Research Group and member of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) scientific committee. She is an Executive Committee member of CODATA (Committee on Data of the International Council for Science).

Xiaofeng Yi

Xiaofeng YI is professor and senior city planner at China Academy of Urban Planning and Design. He studied at Nanjing University, China, for his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree of human geography, also studied urban regeneration as a visiting scholar at Cardiff University, UK. As a planner of 20 years, he has experienced many planning projects, like master plans, detailed plans and urban designs, across China. He was the principal planner for Master Plan of Guangzhou. He is member of the Urban Planning Society of China and reviewer for the Chinese journal ‘City Planning Review’.

Alejandro Camprubi

Alex Camprubí, is an Architect graduated from ITESM, Monterrey, Mexico. He has worked as an Architect, Landscape Architect and Urban Designer for over 25 years and was professor in Architecture at ITESM Mexico, Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Alex has developed the last 10 years of his career within the design field in China. Some of the projects that he has fulfilled responsibilities have been recognized and awarded by ASLA, WAF, ULI, Waterfront Center. He is an International Associate HK AIA; member of ISOCARP, Urban Land Institute, Ekistics Society and an International member of ASLA.