Identifying the dynamic evolution and feedback process of water resources nexus system considering socioeconomic development, ecological protection, and food security: A practical tool for sustainable water use

The accelerated consumption of water resources caused by the rapid increase in population and urbanization is intensifying the complex interactions across water resources, socioeconomic development, ecological protection, and food security (WSEF), which causes not only the imbalance between water supply and demand but also the vulnerability of both food and ecological systems. Therefore, identifying the dynamic coevolution and feedback process is one of the most crucial ways of achieving the goal of sustainable water use. In this study, we developed an integrated modeling framework to better identify the dynamic interaction and coevolution process of the nexus across WSEF systems in the context of sustainable water uses by coupling system dynamic (SD) model and multi-objective optimization model. The SD model is used to simulate both the dynamic interaction of each agent and the coevolution process of the whole nexus system by positive/negative feedback loops. The multi-objective optimization model is used to quantify the negative feedback loops of the SD model by generating the optimal scheme of different water users. Finally, the model uncertainty considering different weighting factors is analyzed. The framework is applied to the upper reaches of the Guijiang River basin, China. Results show that (i) the rapid economic growth increases the conflict between the water uses for socioeconomic development and ecological protection, intensifying the ecological awareness and resulting in more water shortages of socioeconomic and food agents, which is unable to support such rapid development. (ii) Once the economic growth rate decreases, water resources are able to support economic development with a decreased overload index and stable crop yield, which further contributes to water sustainability. (iii) The river ecological agent is the critical factor that affects the robustness of the model. (iv) The equal consideration of each water usage is the most beneficial to sustainable development. These results highlight the importance of water resources management, considering the tradeoffs across multiple stakeholders, and give a strong reference to policymakers for comprehensive urban planning.

The Coevolution of Routines and IT Systems in IT-enabled Organizational Transformation as an Instance of Digital Transformation:

This paper proposes a conceptual framework to study the phenomenon of IT-enabled Organizational Transformation (IT-enabled OT) as a coevolution process of organizational routines and a new IT system. The framework’s objective is to understand IT-enabled OT in a holistic and integrated manner by investigating how actors perceive, interpret, appropriate, and enact, the new IT system in their work routines as well as how they align the new system and these routines with the social order and structures of the organization. It allows the examination of the reciprocal interactions between different aspects of organizational routines and a new IT system to enhance the understanding of how change unfolds in an organization during the implementation, the adoption, use, and adaptation of a new IT system. We illustrate the scope, the analytic and conceptual strength of the framework with a number of examples from the literature and, lastly, discuss its ontological positioning. The paper concludes with a call for further research to empirically validate and refine the proposed framework.

Modeling the integrated framework of water resources system considering socioeconomic development, ecological protection, and food production: A practical tool for sustainable water uses

The accelerated consumption of water resources caused by the rapid increase of population and urbanization is intensifying the negative interactions of water uses across socioeconomic development, ecological protection, and food productivity (SEF), which causes an imbalance between water supply & demand, ecological and food vulnerability, and further water unsustainability. To solve this problem, this study developed an integrated modeling framework to better identify the dynamic interaction and coevolution process of the nexus across SEF systems in the context of sustainable water uses by coupling two models: system dynamic model (SD) and multi-objective optimization model. First, the SD model is used to simulate both the dynamic interaction of each agent and the coevolution process of the whole system under external changes. Next, the multi-objective optimal model is used to generate the optimal scheme by iteration process with the initial scheme of SD, further identifying the dynamic interaction and coevolution process in terms of sustainable water use. Finally, the model uncertainty considering different weighting factors is analyzed. The framework is applied to the Upper Reaches of Guijiang River Basin, China. Results show that: (i) the rapid economic growth intensifies the ecological awareness and cannot support such rapid development because it rises the conflict between environment and economic water uses, resulting in more water shortages of socio-economy and food agent. (ii) Once the economic growth rate decreased, water resources are able to support economic development with decreased overload index and stable crop yield, which further contributes to water sustainability. (iii) The river ecological agent is the critical factor that affects the robustness of the model. (iv) The equal consideration of each water usage is the most beneficial to sustainable development. These results highlight the importance of water resources management considering the tradeoffs across multiple stakeholders and give a strong reference to policymakers for comprehensive urban planning.

Modeling the integrated framework of complex water resources system considering economic development, ecological protection, and food production: A practical tool for water management

The rapid increase of population and urbanization is accelerating the consumption of the water resources that play an essential role in economic development, ecological protection, and food productivity (EEF). This study developed an integrated modeling framework to better identify the dynamic interaction, coevolution process, and feedback loops of the nexus across EEF systems by incorporating the multi-objective optimization and system dynamic (SD) models. The multi-objective model optimizes the water allocation decisions considering the adaptive status of both the whole system and each agent, while the SD model discloses the dynamics of the coevolution process and reciprocal feedback of the EEF system. The framework is applied to the Upper Reaches of Guijiang River Basin, China, in the context of interconnected systems considering the agents of economic development, ecological protection, and food productivity. Results show that the proposed framework enables the optimal water allocation decisions in each time step, and the SD model can adequately reveal the coevolution process and reciprocal feedback that differs in different stages in integrated, dynamic ways. The rapid economic growth intensifies the ecological awareness that cannot support such rapid development because of the conflict between environment and economic water uses. Once the economic growth rate decreased, water resources are able to support economic development because the ecological awareness is alleviated in this respect. The different water usages demonstrate the competitive mechanism, and the river ecological agent is the critical factor that affects the robustness of the model. The equal consideration of each water usage is the most beneficial to sustainable development. These results highlight the importance of water resources management considering multiple stakeholders and tradeoffs and give an insight into future dynamic changes of complex water systems.

The Coevolution Basis of the Economic Security Management of Enterprises

The article is aimed at forming an idea of the coevolution process as the basis for managing the economic security of enterprise. It is noted that the current state of development of socio-economic systems, which include enterprises, are at the stage of post-industrial development. The development of any enterprise depends on its ability to adapt to changes in the exogenous factors of influence, which causes rethinking and the novel approaches to managing the economic security of individual enterprises as preventive measures for adaptation. At that, economic security management should be considered taking into account significant changes closely related to the coevolution process, which has its origin in biology and is understood as a mutually agreed action to change the elements that constitute the integrity of the developing system. It is noted that during the end of the XXth century - begin of XXIst century a transformation of the development of socio-economic systems took place, changing from industrial to noosphere, with its central element being the human, and the central scientific platform for research being the economics of knowledge. Under these conditions, coevolution is considered as the basis for managing the economic security of enterprises with the definition of purpose, objects and subjects of economic security management, with specific provision of the management system and the formation of appropriate management principles. The central element of the economic security management system of enterprise is approaches to management on a coevolution basis, the formation of which is based on the synthesis of general-basis and specific management approaches, namely: evolutionary, systemic, resource, resource-functional. The result of the proposed aspects is obtaining a more effective result from the process of managing the economic security of enterprises.

Linking water, society and ecology in a system dynamics framework: case study of Huainan city

The nexus of water, society, and ecology is set to become a hotspot in the coming decades. In this paper, a simple model framework is developed to describe the interactions and feedback of the three categories of components within the regional water system. Taking Huainan City in Anhui Province of China as an example, a model is established with the system dynamics method to discuss its coevolution process. The results show that the development direction of Huainan City is consistent with the planning direction. The comprehensive effectiveness of the policies for developing water-saving technologies, supporting socio-economic development and ensuring food supply could be acceptable. Moreover, the improvements of water-saving technologies for agriculture and domestic water use need to be accelerated. The support for industrial development and the restrictions on pollutant emissions need to be strengthened. Therefore, the model could help decision-makers to understand the status of the water system, modify policies and make further planning. The coevolution of the regional water system is jointly dominated by the positive feedback loop aimed at productivity and the negative one aimed at sustainability.

Building Resilience Through Effective Disaster Management

Existing literature argues that taking a holistic approach to disaster management is important for organizations in building resilience. Theoretical underpinnings to achieve a holistic understanding, however, is lacking. This article applies the notion of an ecosystem as a holistic lens to understand complex disaster management. The paper reports two case studies from Japan and Nepal to illustrate how an ecosystem works during a disaster. The theoretical framework of information ecology is used in analyzing the cases. Based on the findings, the study shows three interconnected mechanisms that can build resilience of an ecosystem in a disaster management context, namely (1) coevolution, (2) collaboration, and (3) embeddedness of local knowledge. The authors argue that coevolution is a key to respond to constantly changing situations during a disaster. To accomplish ecosystem coevolution, creating a collaboration system with governments and local communities and embedding local knowledge into the system are essential. Furthermore, digital tools can play a critical role in the coevolution process.

Building Resilience Through Effective Disaster Management

Existing literature argues that taking a holistic approach to disaster management is important for organizations in building resilience. Theoretical underpinnings to achieve a holistic understanding, however, is lacking. This article applies the notion of an ecosystem as a holistic lens to understand complex disaster management. The paper reports two case studies from Japan and Nepal to illustrate how an ecosystem works during a disaster. The theoretical framework of information ecology is used in analyzing the cases. Based on the findings, the study shows three interconnected mechanisms that can build resilience of an ecosystem in a disaster management context, namely (1) coevolution, (2) collaboration, and (3) embeddedness of local knowledge. The authors argue that coevolution is a key to respond to constantly changing situations during a disaster. To accomplish ecosystem coevolution, creating a collaboration system with governments and local communities and embedding local knowledge into the system are essential. Furthermore, digital tools can play a critical role in the coevolution process.