RESOURCES PAGE for Regenerative Urbanism & the Systems Thinking Panel at the American Planning Association’s Sustainable Communities Division Climate Change Symposium 2023

This page contains description and links to additional resources for the the Systems Thinking Panel presentation and to the Agenda of the American Planning Association’s (APA’s) Sustainable Community Division (SCD) Symposium 2023.

SYSTEMS THINKING PANEL PRESENTATION (1 OF 4):

Applying Systems Thinking Yields Regenerative Urbanism - A Platform for Inventing Sustainability Success, Pre-recording and Slide Deck PDF, recording of live presentation (see below).

The following resources describe the Symposium first, and then provide an introduction to regenerative systems sustainability and regenerative urbanism.

SYMPOSIUM: AGENDA, INFORMATION, RECORDINGS, & RESOURCES

This second annual Symposium (virtual) focused on climate change and equity in three sessions: The APA PAS on Climate Change authored by the SCD, decarbonization, and how planners are applying systems thinking.

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES DIVISION (SCD) WEB PAGE OF SYMPOSIUM RECORDINGS (Link) AND CONTENTS

• Introduction (0:00:00: hrs:mins:secs)

• Climate Change Panel (0:14:30) and Q&A (0:48:54)

• Decarbonization Panel (0:51:34) and Q&A (1:59:23)

• Systems Thinking:

  • Intro—Shannon Roberts (2:11:58)

  • Regenerative Urbanism—Scott Edmondson, RS2030 (2:14:05)

  • ECOsystems Thinking—Kirstin Weeks, BioStudio (2:29:58)

  • Best Laid Plans/Language of Disruption (the land use/infrastructure connection)—Mark Reiner., Jacobs Engineering (2:47:50)

  • Strategies to Catalyze Urban Transformation—Sandy Mendler, Gensler (3:06:39)

  • Moderated Discussion (3:21:30)

ARTICLES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Regenerative Urbanism — A Brief Introduction and Bibliography (Link to PDF)

• White Paper (Summer 2021): Regenerative Urbanism—A Synopsis: Platform for Inventing Regenerative Urbanism (Link), Presented at EcoCity World Summit 2022. It summarizes and synthesizes the results of Scott Edmondson’s career-long research into forging an accurate understanding of the sustainability challenge and requirements for an effective response. It argues that shifting our current approach FROM designing parts sustainability TO systems sustainability is the only way to solve the accelerating twin climate and unsustainability crises simultaneously and in time, and only for the cost of climate change alone.

  • Bibliography only, and abstract) (link)

• EcoCity World Summit Resources Page (Link): About, White Paper (abstract & link to 13pp PDF), and 10-minute recording of the presentation.

PRESENTATIONS

• Esri GeoDesign Summit 2021: Enabling Sustainability Success with Regenerative Regional GIS (15 min. presentation recording, YouTube, Link)

  • Supplemental resources page on regenerative urbanism, systems modeling tools, and scaling for success (Link)

GEODESIGN AND THE NEW SYSTEM SIMULATION TOOLS

"‘Geodesign is a design and planning method which tightly couples the creation of design proposals with impact simulations informed by geographic contexts.’ Now, it is also used during realization and maintenance phases and to facilitate re-use of buildings or industrial areas, for example. . . . Geodesign is a set of concepts and methods used to involve all stakeholders and various professions in collaboratively designing and realizing the optimal solutions for the [policy] challenges in the built and natural environments, utilizing all available techniques and data in an integrated process.”

• GeoDesign Wikipedia - quick introduction (Link)

• GeoDesign deeper dive into the field - Esri, Integrating GIS with GeoDesign (Link), Case Study Book (Link)

• ArcGIS Pro the Desktop/Cloud tool for 2D, 3D, and 4D GIS (Link)

• ArcGIS Urban for 3D project and area land use and zoning scenario planning (Link)

• CityEngine for 3D city scenario design and planning (Link)

• UrbanSim for 3D local and regional transportation and land use scenario planning and policy testing and development (Link)

• BEAM - the Modeling Framework for Behavior, Energy, Autonomy, and Mobility, UC Berkeley Lab/DOD (Under development, Link): BEAM is an open-source, modular software framework that enables efficient, scalable simulation of regional transportation systems. It allows transportation planners and service providers to simulate traveler behavior and technology deployment to understand congestion, energy, and emission implications of novel mobility technologies and services from individual scale to entire transportation systems.

  • The BEAM Modeling Framework, 4 min YouTube video (Link): Watch this video to learn how BEAM can help guide the sustainable and equitable deployment of new mobility technologies at scale.

  • The BEAM Comprehensive Regional Evaluator (CORE), 2 min YouTube video (Link): Watch this animation to learn how BEAM CORE integrates BEAM, an agent-based transportation system model, with other models that simulate land-use, vehicle purchase and use by households, market penetration of new vehicle technologies, freight and goods delivery, and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, to estimate impacts across a regional transportation system.

SYSTEMS THINKING

• Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, Crown Business (Penguin), 2006. The practice of understanding the systems complexity behind socio-ecologic-economic challenges, and creatively formulating systems intervention options.

• Meadows, Donella, H., Thinking in Systems — A Primer, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008. What it is. How to do it. Why we need it. Its contribution.

• TheSystemsThinker.com - a collection of website resources from field leaders. An Archive of Pegasus Communications’ publishing since the early 1980s. A rich resource for Pegasus’ legacy.

• Peter Senge’s Society for Organizational Learning, Systems thinking is the fifth discipline of learning organizations, the new capacity needed (individuals, organizations, institutions, communities) for the innovation required to invent sustainability success in time, to create a world that rises to, nurtures, cultivates, and reflects the intelligence potential that is human’s comparative advantage and only strength. Try one of Peter’s workshops for a deep conversation around questions that matter; read his remarkable biography.

REGENERATIVE SYSTEMS SUSTAINABILITY & A STRATEGIC APPROACH

• Meadows, Donella, H., et. al., Beyond the Limits, Confronting Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable Future, Chelsea Green Publishing, 1992. A 20-year update from the 1972 Limits to Growth, and an excellent illustration of and training in systems thinking and the tough reality we face. Although written 30 years ago, and the systems dynamic modeling has been updated since, the book is a shining example of how to think effectively about the overwhelming systems breakdown path to which humanity is awakening all too slowly.

• A Report to the Club of Rome, Earth for All—A Survival Guide for Humanity, New Society Publishers, 2020. This is the 50-year update/fresh look at the world’s sustainability challenge from that of the Club of Rome’s original report — Limits to Growth, 1972. Begin with the report, dive into the science, methods, and systems dynamic modeling.

• Senge, Peter (et. al.), The Necessary Revolution — How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World, Doubleday, 2008.

• Biomimicry — Nature Inspired Innovation: the book, the institute.

• The Natural Step (International-About), A Strategic Framework and Approach.

• The Natural Step (Canada-About), Approach for Sustainable Communities. And Resources.

• The International Living Future Institute (About), Living Future Challenge Programs, The Living Community Challenge Program.

REGENERATIVE SYSTEMS SUSTAINABILITY ECONOMICS

• McDonough, William and Michael Braungart, The Upcycle—Beyond Sustainability, Designing for Abundance, North Point Press, 2013. Also, Cradle to Cradle—Remaking the Way We Make Things, 2002, and the The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute non-profit organization created to bring about a large scale transformation https://c2ccertified.org/

• Daley, Herman, Farley, Joshua, Ecological Economics, Second Edition: Principles and Applications, Island Press, 2004.

• Sachs, Jeffrey, D., Common Wealth—Economics for a Crowded Planet, Penguin Press, 2008.

• Hawken, Paul, Amory & Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism—Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, Little Brown Company, 2000; Updated in 2010, earthscan. See also, the book’s website, and the Harvard Business Review, review article, A Road Map for Natural Capitalism, 2007.

• Natural Capitalism Solutions (Link), Founder, Hunter Lovins, Natural capitalism as simply a better — the best — business model.

• Regenerative Economics Initiative, Capital Institute, https://capitalinstitute.org/. One initiative among many emerging pioneering initiatives that are discovering and trying on the “regenerative” concept of living systems and developing its implications across many practices: management, organizational design and development, economics, agriculture, etc.