Convergent Anthropocene Systems: Towards an Agile, System-of-Systems Engineering Approach

Amro M. Farid, John C. Little

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The greatest societal challenges are numerous, daunting, and seemingly unrelated, collectively spanning almost every discipline of science and engineering. Societies confronted with these complex challenges need to manage synergies and trade-offs across multiple systems, scales and levels of analysis. Unfortunately, if the goal is to overcome each of these challenges separately, we must embrace convergence as a means to merge disciplines, methodologies, and technologies, and we must do this for every one of the challenges, which is a truly daunting, and perhaps even impossible, task. Fortunately, however, societal challenges of the Anthropocene share the abstract common characteristics of broad scope, complex interdependencies, and multi-faceted causality, and also share several common systems. Seizing on this conceptual opportunity, we evaluate the 'convergence potential' for systems-of-systems engineering methods. We then present a way forward that addresses the unique characteristics of Anthropocene systems by developing an agile systems-of-systems engineering framework and associated decision-support system to integrate fragmented data and disciplinary knowledge into a new systemic understanding. The proposed framework provides a fresh perspective on an entire family of societal challenges of the Anthropocene.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2022 17th Annual System of Systems Engineering Conference, SOSE 2022
Pages396-401
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781665496230
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Event17th Annual System of Systems Engineering Conference, SOSE 2022 - Rochester, United States
Duration: 7 Jun 202211 Jun 2022

Publication series

Name2022 17th Annual System of Systems Engineering Conference, SOSE 2022

Conference

Conference17th Annual System of Systems Engineering Conference, SOSE 2022
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityRochester
Period7/06/2211/06/22

Keywords

  • Anthropocene systems
  • Earth systems
  • decision support systems
  • engineering systems
  • system of systems

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