Insight diagram

This complex system models the dynamics and impacts of transportation efficacy and efficiency of sustainable urban transportation in Durham Region. Within the Regional Municipality of Durham, there are eight local Municipalities consisting of Ajax, Brock, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering, Scugog, Uxbridge, and Whitby, which account for a total population of approximately 750,000 individuals as of 2023. As Durham Region continues to expand and increase in population, road structures will be faced with an increasing traffic load that will generate a significant amount of carbon emissions. Due to the prevailing climate concerns, the need for sustainable urban transportation is evident.

Urban transportation systems are a cornerstone of city life. They connect communities and businesses, while providing access to services, supporting economic and social activities. Maintaining a vast network of transportation systems as cities grow, becomes increasingly challenging. These challenges, consisting of traffic congestion, environmental impact, and diverse transportation needs, become of paramount concern, such that political campaigns run solely on these platforms.

Within this stock and flow model are the main variables that comprise transportation emissions within Durham Region. The urban transportation model highlights different modes of transportation in the form of stocks, which consist of public transit users (bus), fossil fuel car drivers, and EV car drivers, as well as the inflows and outflows that are influenced by various variables. 

All data used within this model was obtained from the various sources on the internet. The data used within the model is based off of estimate values. Data pertaining to population values and cities/towns that comprise Durham Region, ON obtained from the following source(s): 


**NOTE: Kindly note we have used 14 sources in total that we have referenced - 2 are listed below as these 2 sources were used for the above description - the other references are located in the variables where the sources were used. 

Regional Municipality of Durham. (n.d.). Demographics and statistics. Durham Region Economic Development and Tourism. Retrieved November 24, 2024, from https://www.durham.ca/en/economic-development/invest-and-grow/demographics-and-statistics.aspx

Regional Municipality of Durham. (n.d.). Local municipalities. Durham Region. Retrieved from https://www.durham.ca/en/regional-government/local-municipalities.aspx

Group 8 Members: Leda Alizada (100821720), Pritika Lally (100867821), Mahad Rashid (100779108), Rileigh Rodych (100515185), Sami Siddique (100460897)

EcoTransit Durham - Modeling Urban Transportation in Durham Region for 2023
Insight diagram
This page provides a structural analysis of POTUS Candidate Rand Paul's economic policy based on the information at:  https://www.randpaul.com/issue/spending-and-debt and also   https://www.randpaul.com/issue/taxes  The method used is Integrative Propositional Analysis (IPA) available: ​ http://scipolicy.org/uploads/3/4/6/9/3469675/wallis_white_paper_-_the_ipa_answer_2014.12.11.pdf
DRAFT IPA of Rand Paul Economic Policy
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Economic Systems
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Economic model
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Economic model
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4H's Pioneer Seeds (Economical)
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Dynamic model
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This Insight Maker model illustrates the complex relationships involved in the destruction of rainforests. The reinforcing loop emphasizes the destructive cycle where economic development leads to increased deforestation, while the balancing loop highlights the negative consequences on biodiversity, climate, and economic activities, attempting to counteract the destructive forces. The model serves as a simplified representation to better understand the interconnected factors contributing to rainforest destruction and the importance of considering feedback loops in addressing environmental issues.
Destruction of Rainforests
Insight diagram
241004_economic growth model structure_SFD
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Laying out and testing before coupling to main model (which is Final Project)
Socio-Economic Factors
Insight diagram

Public utilities do not need to make a profit. They can concentrate on providing a quality service, a public good. By contrast, the primary objective of private utilities is not to provide a public good, but profit and profitability. This simple CLD tries to show the conflict that can arise from this and a hidden dynamic, a reinforcing feedback loop, that can lead to disaster. Unfortunately, there are examples where failure in infrastructure maintenance has led to disaster. On the 9th of July 2009, the German newspaper 'Welt Online' reported that the authorities in Berlin had to intervene and force the company that was running Berlin's S-Bahn (suburban rail service) to withdraw half of all the city's trains from service because they were considered unsafe! Something similar happened in the UK where failure to maintain rail tracks led to serious accidents. 

Private Utility's Objective: Provision of a Public Good or Profit?
Insight diagram
Template to start Assignment 1.  Click "Clone Insight" above to make a copy for yourself.
JoyW ISCI 360 Assignment 1
Insight diagram
Ocean/atmosphere/biosphere model tuned for interactive economics-based simulations from Y2k on.
Lab 13 Start_Base model
Insight diagram
Economical Factors of Science: C8
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Fig 4. The Casual Loop Diagram of the Socio-Political and Economic Subsystems
Insight diagram
Week 13.1 Lab Economic Model
Insight diagram
This is the summary of lecture ​1 of my Course about StartUps. It's an intro to the startup ecosystem and the different stakeholders that can interact with your new enterprise at different stages of its evolution and growth. -version 1 - for info or suggestions: bonato.pietroz@gmail.com
StartUp ecosystem
Insight diagram
Economical 4H Insight
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Vymazal Lukáš - seminární práce Finanční model
8 months ago
Insight diagram
Implementação do modelo Handy.

Referência:

Motesharrei, S.; Rivas, J.; Kalnay, E. "Human and nature dynamics (HANDY): Modelling inequality and use of resources in the collapse or sustainability of societies". Ecological Economics 101 (2014) 90-102

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800914000615
HANDY
Insight diagram
ISCI 360 Project - Stage 2

Our model examines the relationship between two straw types (plastic straws and biodegradable straws) and their impact on the environment and economics. Specifically, we are interested in figuring out whether biodegradable straws are a viable solution to plastic straws. 

Our model is broken down into three aspects: Social, Environmental and Economic. Color coding is used to differentiate between the different aspects and is explained below:
Turquoise represents the social aspect. 
Purple represents the economic aspects.
Green represents the environmental aspects. 
Blue represents other crucial stocks and flows in the model that do not necessarily fit into the three aspects above. 

In our model, the Canadian population is assumed to increase steadily until a carrying capacity is reached. This can be seen in the graph as the line increases linearly before plateauing indefinitely. We assumed that we will be able to maintain the population at our carrying capacity due to technological advances. 

Social Aspect:
The social aspect refers to the impact that awareness of the detrimental costs of straws can have on the usage of straws. The two flows that contribute to awareness are word of mouth (i.e. your friends and family informing you about the effects of straws and influencing you to stop using them) and media coverage (i.e. the media highlights the effects of straws). Both of these flows are dependent on the Canadian population such that 25% of the Canadian population at any time will be impacted by word of mouth or media coverage. (Side note: since word of mouth and media coverage are dependent on the Canadian population, they will plateau when the population does.) This is an arbitrary number but was chosen to show what a change in perspectives of the Canadian population can do. These flows input into an 'awareness of detrimental effects of using plastic straws' stock that reduces the number of plastic straws being used. 

Plastic Straws
According to data from the United States individuals usually use 1.6 straws everyday and thus, we have assumed that to be true in Canada as well. Plastic straws start at a base value (due to the previous straw usage) and grow with the Canadian population while subtracting the awareness component of the model. 

Environmental Aspect 
Since the decomposition of plastic versus paper is significantly different, the amounts that accumulate in the ocean and landfills can be monitored. In addition, the impact on the environment can be monitored. Since plastic straws take longer to decompose, they have a larger impact on wildlife in the ocean than biodegradable straws. Thus, as the plastic straw usage decreases, the amount of habitat loss occurring plateaus. We have also included the aspect of clean-up in which the plastic from the ocean can be moved to the landfill. You will notice that the habitat loss plateaus but does not decrease. This is because we cannot reverse the damage we have done (without additional rigorous clean-up) but can mitigate additional damage. (Please note that clean-up affects only the stock 'Plastic Straws in the ocean' and thus, does not affect the stock 'habitat loss.' Therefore, clean-up will reduce the number of plastic straws in the ocean and indirectly affect the stock 'habitat loss.' However, it will not clean up the plastic straws already impacting 'habitat loss.')

Economic Aspect
The economic aspect monitors the amount of money it takes to make plastic straws versus biodegradable straws and the amount of money the government needs to fund ocean clean-ups. It can be seen that a the usage of plastic straws decreases, the need for clean-up money from the government decreases. However, there is a base level of damage that has already been done by us and thus, larger scale clean-ups will be needed to reverse that. In other words, smaller clean-ups will mitigate the damage we are currently doing but not reverse the damage we have already done. We can also track the cost of making each straw; it can be seen that biodegradable straws are more expensive to make. 

However, the energy required to make the straws is less for biodegradable straws than plastic straws. Thus, there are trade-offs for using biodegradable straws.

Although, biodegradable straws are more expensive, they require less energy to make, decompose faster, require less funding for clean-up and impact the wildlife in the ocean to a lesser degree. 
Project Stage 2
Insight diagram
Simple causal loop diagram of a compound interest savings account in Dutch.
Causaal verband diagram sparen - samengestelde interest
Insight diagram
GSGS4610_FastFashion_FinalModel
5 months ago
Insight diagram
A system diagram for the Mojave Desert including example socio-economic factors for an assignment at OSU- RNG 341.
Mojave Desert System Diagram with SES