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System Thinking Tutorial and Reef Link Database Fact Sheets
Citation:
Yee, S. System Thinking Tutorial and Reef Link Database Fact Sheets. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/F-12/006, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
EPA scientists have developed a tutorial for using a conceptual systems framework to help capture, organize and visualize the environmental, social and economic outcomes of human decisions. The framework establishes links between social and economic factors that drive human activity and the effect of those activities on natural resources.
Description:
The sustainable well-being of communities is inextricably linked to both the health of the earth’s ecosystems and the health of humans living in the community. Currently, many policy and management decisions are made without considering the goods and services humans derive from ecosystems or how some decisions might put these goods and services at risk. This approach is not sustainable. How do we think about what it means to be sustainable? We need to anticipate the consequences of alternative decisions on ecosystems or the value of ecosystem services