Wicked Problems, Dynamic Solutions: The Ecosystem 
                  Approach and Systems Thinking 
                                   
         
         
        This sourcebook accompanies the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the Ecosystem 
        Approach  and  Systems  Thinking  (EAST)  developed  by  the  Loyola  Sustainability  Research 
        Centre  at  Concordia  University,  Montreal,  and  the  United  Nations  Environment  Programme 
        (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya. The sourcebook is written for both teacher and student, though it is 
        assumed that most of its readers will be teachers who are applying the MOOC to a hybrid class 
        (blended  learning)  or  are  offering  the  MOOC  to  students  and/or  professionals  in  various 
        branches of public administration, civil society, or the private sector. Each module is described 
        in terms of the main learning objectives, a short introduction to the topic, a summary of prevalent 
        policy  initiatives  and  interventions,  a  list  of  suggested  “discussion  points”  that  can  guide 
        classroom or online discussions/debates, an annotated bibliography of some key sources that 
        have been suggested by our subject experts, and a list of exciting websites, TED talks, and other 
        Internet material that students can easily access for more information. A premium is put on 
        brevity in this sourcebook: each module is dealt with in under fifteen pages. The actual MOOC 
        contains far more material, including visual aids to the concepts and case study material. Each 
        module is designed to take roughly four hours to complete for students in the MOOC; reading 
        each  module’s  section  in  the  sourcebook  should  take  considerably  less  time.  We  have  also 
        refrained from including images, graphs, and other infographics in the sourcebook, since they are 
        prominent features in the MOOC itself. 
         
        We’ve divided the course into three sections: the first introduces key concepts, the second covers 
        key sectors involved in sustainability and conservation, the third uses cross-cutting issues to 
        demonstrate the utility of the ecosystem approach. Each section should take roughly the same 
        amount of time to complete; teachers can choose, however, to emphasize one over the others if 
        that is their preference. We made conscious choices about which ecosystems to cover in depth, 
        hoping that students can relate our choices to their daily lives. For example, we do not cover 
        mountain, desert, or polar ecosystems except in passing. However, the basic principals of the 
        ecosystem  approach,  and  the  need  for  sustained  systems  thinking,  applies  to  all  the  earth’s 
        ecosystems and, as importantly, all its human inhabitants. 
         
        The main thrust of this course is that we can all benefit from adopting systems thinking in our 
        daily lives and that the environmental problems we face today demand this. The UN Convention 
        on Biological Diversity adopted the ecosystem approach as early as 2000, and it remains central 
        to efforts in biodiversity conservation but also for many other sectors, from forestry to water, 
        where ecosystem services are threatened by land use conversion, invasive species, pollution, 
        climate  change,  and  other  factors.  Key  to  the  evolution  of  the  ecosystem  approach  is  the 
        purposeful involvement of the human dimension in decision-making, and we devote one of the 
        introductory modules to this theme. The team that put this MOOC together have both natural and 
        social science backgrounds, which we hope is reflected in the material here. This clear insistence 
        on the human dimensions of the ecosystem approach lead to some unusual components of the 
        course: for example, we include a specific module on human public health concerns, compiled 
      with help from EcoHealth Alliance in New York City. Our intention is to demonstrate to students 
      that the ecosystem approach and systems thinking can be used in various contexts and across 
      disciplinary and sectoral divides for shared benefits. This is a deliberate effort to mainstream 
      environmental issues and promote a transdisciplinary methodology in the process. 
       
      Though we hope this sourcebook and the related MOOC will be distributed and used as an 
      educational  resource  as  widely  as  possible,  we  are  particularly  pleased  that  they  are  both 
      intimately related to the Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability, one 
      of UNEP’s flagship programmes. GUPES is a network of close to 800 universities that integrates 
      environmental concerns into teaching, research, and adult education. GUPES also seeks to lead 
      the  greening  of  university  infrastructure,  facilities  and  operations,  and  to  enhance  student 
      engagement and participation. We hope this network can take advantage of this material as a 
      supplement to educational programmes offered across the world. 
       
       
       
       
      The Advanced Certificate 
       
      There are 10 modules in this MOOC, each of which is summarized in this sourcebook. However, 
      we have also added an advanced certificate option for this course through Module 11, which 
      gives students a chance to engage in more detailed, demanding study. Specifically, we ask them 
      to design a response to a wicked problem that affects their own lives, whether it is an ecological 
      challenge to community survival, a public policy dilemma in their home country, or broader 
      concerns about global biodiversity conservation or other issues. In a blended course, they can do 
      this on an individual basis or in teams, compiling a five-minute video that will be uploaded onto 
      the site and perhaps posted for broader public consumption on social media, and a 3,000-3,500- 
      word paper outlining their problem and solutions. Unlike the 10 modules outlined here, which 
      will be automatically graded on a pass/fail basis, the Advanced Certificate work will be graded 
      by the teaching team for the course if it is taken as part of a blended learning experience, and we 
      will use peer-review grading for those students taking the course purely online. It is expected that 
      few of the students registered in this course will go on to complete the Advanced Certificate 
      because it will be highly demanding and require at least another 20 hours of work and substantial 
      time collaborating with team-mates. Please see the last chapter in this sourcebook for more 
      information  on  completing  the  Advanced  Certificate,  which  can  also  be  used  in  a  blended 
      classroom as the major assignment for the term. 
       
       
      Please note that comments/corrections/suggestions on this Sourcebook are very welcome. Please 
      address them to Dr. Peter Stoett:   peter.stoett@concordia.ca. 
       
      Dr. Stoett is grateful to the many contributors to the UNEP EAST MOOC project. Since there is 
      considerable overlap with contributors (from Concordia University, UNEP, and Knowledge One) 
      we name them only in the MOOC itself. 
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
      Table of Contents 
       
       
       
       
       
      SECTION I: Introduction to key concepts 
       
        1.  Systems Thinking 
        2.  Ecosystems and the Ecosystem Approach 
        3.  Human Dimensions 
       
       
       
      SECTION II: Sectors 
       
        4.  Biodiversity 
        5.  Forests 
        6.  Fluvial systems 
        7.  Oceans and coasts 
        8.  Urban ecosystems 
          
       
       
      SECTION III: Cross-cutting issue-areas 
       
        9.  Public Health 
        10. Climate Change 
       
       
       
      SECTION IV: Taking it Further 
       
        11.  The Advanced Certificate Assignment 
       
       
      References 
       
       
       
                     
                     
                    	
                    Module 1: Systems Thinking  
                     
                     
                     
                    Expected Learning Outcomes: upon completion of this module, students will be able to  
                     
                         -    distinguish between closed and open, and simple and complex, systems 
                         -    distinguish between reductionist and complex approaches to problem solving 
                         -    distinguish between a simple and wicked problem 
                         -    understand why a reductionist approach is not appropriate to address a wicked problem 
                         -    identify  the  basic  characteristics  of  complex  adaptive  systems,  including  emergent 
                              properties, path-dependency, feedback loops, and others 
                         -    understand and explain the concept of resilience 
                         -    realize that human perception is an important part of adaptive management 
                         -    understand  that  technological  advances  can  help  us  to  understand  complex  adaptive 
                              systems and approach the world from a systems thinking perspective, but also be able to 
                              identify limitations of these technologies  
                     
                     
                     
                    An Introduction to Systems Thinking 
                     
                    What does it mean to take a systems approach to complex problems? A system is defined as a 
                    set of interacting components that interact to form a whole. Examining the system by observing 
                    the component parts is generally referred to as a reductionist approach. A systems approach, in 
                    contrast, implies that we need to think in terms of the whole, while paying attention also to the 
                    parts of the system and how they interact with each other (Waltner-Toews et al. 2008). And since 
                    systems exist within a broader universe of other, interacting systems, we also need to “zoom out” 
                    to  see  the  larger  picture.  Interestingly,  many  human  made  systems  mimic  natural  systems 
                    already, and we are learning how to take advantage of “biomimicry” in our systems designs and 
                    engineering feats. But we don’t often apply a systems approach to the problems we face in 
                    everyday life, or for that matter the “wicked problems” related to environmental issues that we 
                    need to solve in collective fashion. 
                     
                    Systems can be open or closed. A closed system requires no input from outside, which is rare 
                    outside the world of chemistry and thermodynamics. Most systems are open, in that they require 
                    and are constantly influenced by input from outside and also produce some output which affects 
                    the broader environment around them. As we will learn in this course, ecosystems are excellent 
                    examples of complex, open systems on which we all rely for our survival. But we need also to 
                    define system boundaries – what components of nature exist inside and outside (the broader 
                    environment) in order to grasp where one system begins and another ends.