Systems Engineering for the Planet

Systems Engineering for the Planet

Global Warming, Systems Engineering for the Planet

You have probably read the article “Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice” that is currently spread through the media. To be honest, it is not surprising that our world is in bad shape. We know that since decades, but our action is too lame in most cases. Political, financial, and other issues dilute real consequent actions.

Currently, I work a lot on safety engineering respectively model-based safety engineering. It is an important aspect of systems engineering that comes with a set of processes, methods, modeling languages, and tools. Isn’t the ecological footprint of a system also an important aspect of a system? Do we need something like an “Ecological Engineer”? With processes, methods, modeling languages, and tools? According to the INCOSE vision: A better world through a systems approach.

I think yes, and I am pretty sure that there are already first approaches. I remember some articles and conference talks about that have been published in recent years. But I do not remember a discipline on its own. “Systems Engineering for the Planet” was the slogan of the INCOSE symposium in Utrecht in 2008.

Do you know a discipline? How is it called? What are the methods & tools? How is it integrated into the systems engineering processes landscape? Please comment if you know more about that.

Interesting questions and I am looking forward to getting answers.

By the way, the term “Ecological Engineering” is already used by another discipline and is defined as the design of sustainable ecosystems.

 

4 Responses

  1. Good point. I also wonder if there is a precise discipline, but in the modeling community, we have started to address this concern with precise targets, and colleagues have started some workshops, if you’re interested:

    – our paper: https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01185800/document
    – the conference: http://cmwrconference.org

  2. Hemk Broeze says:

    What about Environmental Engineering?

  3. Great post! Systems Engineering integrates all the disciplines and specialty groups into a team effort forming a structured development process that proceeds from concept to production to operation. It can be scaled to adjust to suit the size and complexity of the project and it is the best solution for the Planet as well.

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