Insight diagram

A Tragedy of the Commons situation exists whenever two or more activities, each, which in order to produce results, rely on a shared limited resource. Results for these activities continue to develop as long as their use of the limited resource doesn't exceed the resource limit. Once this limit is reached the results produced by each activity are limited to the level at which the resource is replenished. As an example, consider multiple departments with an organization using IT resources, until they've exhausted IT capacity.

Environmental economics Niger Delta oil polluted case study
Insight diagram
Simple tragedy ​of the commons behavior model.
Common Resources
Insight diagram

Primitive Legend:

Grocery Store Inventory is a stock that represents the amount of perishable food units available for sale to consumers. This stock is directly affected by the forces of economics as grocers can only sell at the level that their produce is demanded. As a result, once this stock exceeds demand, it will rise as food no longer sold.

Overstock Waste is a stock that is designed to model the overstock display assumption which states that consumers have more incentive to purchase foods from fully stocked piles rather than empty ones. This stock exists and accumulates over time because grocers purchase excess produce to give buyers incentive.

Ugly Food Stock is the stock that represent the amount of perfectly nutritious ugly produce neglected by consumers as they only buy the prettiest clusters from the display. This stock includes foods such as brown bananas, dented apples, and so forth. These ugly foods are left behind in addition to the overstock waste.

Education Programs is the stock that contains the amount of ugly foods delivered to local school districts for educating students on the significance of ugly food discrimination. These foods are utilized in various forms of comparative demonstrations to illustrate to students that ugly foods are just as nutritious as prettier alternatives.

Compost Alternatives is the stock that depicts the efforts of grocery stores trying to implement a method that allows them to reduce the amount of waste they send to the landfill. These compost methods may be in the form on enriched manure given back to the farmers that supply the produce.

10 Food Units/Resale Output is the variable that illustrates the amount of food units required to make a product for resale. For example, it takes 10 units of melons to make an assorted melon platter. Likewise, a single smoothie for resale will require 5 units of assorted fruits.

ISCI 360 Project Stage 2
Insight diagram
Image Used;
Title: Industry Cliparts
Source: http://clipart-library.com/industry-cliparts.html
Creator: Clipart Library

Book: Meadows, D. H., & Wright, D. (2009). Thinking in systems: a primer. London: Earthscan.
Economic Capital
Insight diagram
This is part of series of model implemented from "Thinking in Systems" book by Donella Meadows
Thinking in Systems - Economic Capital - Fig 37, 44
Insight diagram

The World3 model is a detailed simulation of human population growth from 1900 into the future. It includes many environmental and demographic factors.

THIS MODEL BY GUY LAKEMAN, FROM METRICS OBTAINED USING A MORE COMPREHENSIVE VENSIM SOFTWARE MODEL, SHOWS CURRENT CONDITIONS CREATED BY THE LATEST WEATHER EXTREMES AND LOSS OF ARABLE LAND BY THE  ALBEDO EFECT MELTING THE POLAR CAPS TOGETHER WITH NORTHERN JETSTREAM SHIFT NORTHWARDS, AND A NECESSITY TO ACT BEFORE THERE IS HUGE SUFFERING.
BY SETTING THE NEW ECOLOGICAL POLICIES TO 2015 WE CAN SEE THAT SOME POPULATIONS CAN BE SAVED BUT CITIES WILL SUFFER MOST. 
CURRENT MARKET SATURATION PLATEAU OF SOLID PRODUCTS AND BEHAVIORAL SINK FACTORS ARE ALSO ADDED

Use the sliders to experiment with the initial amount of non-renewable resources to see how these affect the simulation. Does increasing the amount of non-renewable resources (which could occur through the development of better exploration technologies) improve our future? Also, experiment with the start date of a low birth-rate, environmentally focused policy.

2014 Weather & Climate Extreme Loss of Arable Land and Ocean Fertility - The World3+ Model: Forecaster
Insight diagram
This is an interface to explore UK-SSP1.
UK-SSP1 Sustainability
Insight diagram
Economic growth model v.1
Insight diagram
Structure of model in Nathan Forrester's 1983 MIT Thesis comprising 4 models
Macroeconomics System Dynamics Nathan Forrester
3 3 months ago
Insight diagram
A model of the ebb and flow of agricultural societies, like China's history. From Khalil Saeed and Oleg Pavlov's WPI 2006 paper See also the Generic structure Insight Map
Dynastic Cycles Model
Insight diagram
WIP SD representation of Ch11 of their 2007 Monetary Economics book, as suggested by Adam K. Plan is to do a top down simple money flow SFC mmt model and successively split sectors. See also essence of MMT IM and simpler version Ch3 IM
Godley and Lavoie Growth Model
Insight diagram
This is an interface to explore UK-SSP4.
UK-SSP4 Inequality
Insight diagram
Economic Assessment Model Virtualisation of Electric Substations
4 4 months ago
Insight diagram

The term 'work' has been  used in this model in the sense of economic activity to include not only work done by people but also by machines. The model shows 8 positive feedback loops that reinforce work and the need to work. From the perspective of physics, civilisation can be described as a MECHANISM FOR USING ENERGY AND DOING WORK.  

Work, however, has some unavoidable consequences. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that any ‘work’ requires the use of energy and that DOING WORK entails the generation of WASTE HEAT. The laws of physics also tell us that CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels will cause global warming. These unintended and unavoidable consequences are highlighted in the model by prominent arrows.

Can the structure of this system be changed to avoid a foreseeable collapse of civilisation?

Do economic activity and work unavoidably lead to doom?
Insight diagram
WIP based mostly on Jan Toporowski 2013 vol 1 and 2018 vol 2 books on Michal Kalecki: An Intellectual Biography  
Layout Consistent with David Wheat MacroEconomic model CLD Insight by Gene Bellinger  
Kalecki economic thought
Insight diagram
Video Game Economics
Insight diagram
This model also shows the operation of a simple economy. It differs from Model 1 primarily in the representation of all goods in the economy by units of measure of a higher level of abstraction. Thus, the same model can represent economies at different levels.

The simulation demonstrates how differing rates of consumption affect Savings.
Simple Economy: Model 2
Insight diagram

Based on G.P. Cimellaro et al. Framework for analytical quantification of disaster resilience Engineering Structures 32 (2010) 3639–3649 paper

Facilities Disaster Resilience
Insight diagram
Barangay IRAWAN Systems Model
Biophysical, Socio-cultural & Economic Data of Bgy. IRAWAN
Insight diagram
Cornerstore Economic Model
Insight diagram
System Thinking and Modelling of Biophysical, Socio-economic and Cultural components of Barangay Iwahig - Judy Ann Simil
Insight diagram
Based on a project I am working in [country].  The objective of the Insight is to describe the root causes of the binding constraint of water scarcity on economic growth.

  • Common Pool Resource Problem
  • Limits to Growth
  • Success to Successful
Common Pool Resource is evidenced by uncontrolled (illicit) groundwater abstraction and the declining water tables and water quality.

Groundwater resources are clearly finite (even if the exact limit in uncertain).  As the limit is approached water quantity and quality declines rapidly.  Groundwater is generally being overexploited beyond safe yields.

There is a pattern of success to successful (those with means are better positioned to adapt to increasing scarcity) but this growth in inequality results in social unrest which in turn inhibits reinvestment by the successful.

Green elements are the focus of project investments:  Improved regulatory capacity, infrastructure investments, WUA capacity building, and strengthening cooperatives to support investment in small holders.
Groundwater Problem
Insight diagram

Modern industrial civilisation has created massive interdependencies which define it and without which it could not function. We all depend on industrial farming to produce the food we eat, we depend on gasoline being available at the gas station,  on the availability of electricity and even on the bread supplied by the local baker. Naturally, we tend to support the institutions that supply the amenities and goods to which we have become accustomed: if we get our food from the local supermarket, it is likely that we would be opposed to it’s closure. This means that the economic system that relies on continuous growth enjoys implicit societal support and that nothing short of environmental disaster or a shortage of essential raw materials will impede it’s growing indefinitely. It is not hard to work out the consequences of this situation!

The Inescapable Dynamic of Economic Growth
Insight diagram
An initial study of the economics of single use coffee pods.
Coffee Pods ISD Humanities