Systems Engineering and management for Sustainable Development - Volume I

Book excerpt: Systems Engineering and Management for Sustainable Development is a component of Encyclopedia of Technology, Information, and Systems Management Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. This theme discusses: basic principles of systems engineering and management for sustainable development, including: cost effectiveness assessment; decision assessment, tradeoffs, conflict resolution and negotiation; research and development policy; industrial ecology; and risk management strategies for sustainability. The emphasis throughout will be upon the development of appropriate life-cycles for processes that assist in the attainment of sustainable development, and in the use of appropriate policies and systems management approaches to ensure successful application of these processes. The general objectives of these chapters is to illustrate the way in which one specific issue, such as the need to bring about sustainable development, necessarily grows in scope such that it becomes only feasible to consider the engineering and architecting of appropriate systems when the specific issue is imbedded into a wealth of other issues. The discussions provide an illustration of the many attributes and needs associated with the important task of utilizing information and knowledge, enabled through systems engineering and management, to engineer systems involving humans, organizations, and technology, in the support of sustainability. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.