Calls to adopt alternative measures of progress beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP) have increased over time because of well-documented limitations of GDP in capturing social and environmental aspects of societal wellbeing. Despite the availability of numerous alternative measures, none have been widely adopted by policymakers or become prominent in the social discourse. We develop a causal map to provide a systems perspective explanation for the increasing number of alternative measures and their low adoption. Causal mapping helped identify the underlying system structure and to present a coherent and integrated understanding of earlier work. To ground the causal map, we reviewed and integrated the extant literature on beyond GDP adoption and implementation. Our analysis highlights that continuous calls for the development of broader beyond GDP measures may have the paradoxical effect of strengthening GDP use. The numerous existing alternative measures of progress and the steady introduction of new measures have fragmented the beyond GDP message. The need to differentiate from existing measures creates pressure to add new elements and undermines convergence towards an easy-to-understand beyond GDP measure. The systems analysis explains the resistance to the well-intentioned efforts to develop alternative measures of progress and shows the importance of redirecting this effort towards building a strong consensus around one or a handful of alternative measures to activate the diffusion process.

Cities have advanced in terms of economic and social status over the past five decades, improving the living conditions of hundreds of millions of people. However, population growth and urban expansion have put pressure on social and environmental conditions. This study examines urban policymakers’ perceptions about causal relationships in the urban system as revealed in urban planning reports. Here we analyzed 500 pages from published urban plans of Greater Sydney between 1968 and 2018 and coded the text into causal maps. The findings show that policymakers adopted a dominant urban development strategy over the past 50 years to pursue economic and public infrastructure growth. Over time, this growth strategy resulted in a number of social and environmental challenges that negatively impacted societal well-being. Although policymakers eventually recognized the seriousness of social and environmental challenges, they never attempted to fundamentally change the dominant growth strategy. Instead, policymakers sought to address the challenges (that is, symptoms) by responding to each issue piecemeal. This study codes about 500 pages from three urban development plans for the Greater Sydney area between 1968 and 2018 using causal maps. It found that there were unintended social and environmental consequences from the sustained economic growth strategy in the plans, and although there were attempts to solve them, there were never plans to change the dominant growth strategy.

Cities worldwide face housing pressure due to rapid population growth exceeding the housing supply. Despite efforts to increase housing supply, housing affordability continues to decline. Understanding policymakers' perceptions of the housing sector in urban planning is critical to guaranteeing housing opportunities for everyone. We examine the complexities of housing affordability in the urban planning process by analyzing three urban planning reports in Greater Sydney. We use an existing dataset for Greater Sydney urban planning reports and causal mapping to analyze policymakers' perceptions about the relationships that drive the housing demand, housing supply, and housing prices. The findings highlight the need for a better understanding of the drivers of urban sprawl, the limitations of current supply-side strategies, and alternative solutions to control urban growth and mitigate housing crises in urban areas.

This article examines research performance of management academics in the Group of Eight (Go8) Australian universities using SCOPUS publication data. Normative research profiles for journal publications, book publications, citations, and h-index are provided for each academic level. The number of journal publications are reported for seven different journal ranking lists. The average Go8 management scholar increases the number of total journal publications per year by 56% over their entire publishing career, but does not increase the number of top international journal publications per year. Importantly, the top quartile of Go8 management scholars – who account for 70% of top journal publications and 79% of journal citations – already achieve world class productivity in the top international journals. We hope Go8 Deans and Heads of School use the research performance benchmarks to inform faculty recruitment, tenure and promotion decisions. JEL Classification: I23, M1, M19

Table functions, also referred to as graphical functions, provide a powerful and user-friendly way to represent nonlinear relationships between variables in system dynamics (SD) models. However, in many cases modelers may benefit from using analytical equations to represent nonlinear relationships for model sensitivity testing and also for communicating with researchers in other fields and disciplines. We propose six analytical equations that can be used to represent many of the nonlinear relationships commonly formulated using table functions in SD models. Specifically, this article provides guidance on using the generalized logistic function, the exponential function, the modified exponential function, the quadratic function, the logarithmic function and the power function to replace existing table functions. Importantly, we also present a version of each equation that includes an interior reference point. We demonstrate how to apply these analytical equations in SD models by replacing the table functions in the original World Dynamics model. We also provide a Python script to help implement our recommended procedure for incorporating the six analytical equations into models and a Vensim macro for each analytical equation. (c) 2022 The Authors. System Dynamics Review published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of System Dynamics Society.

Thermal Districts have been presented globally as an efficient alternative to supply the demand for cooling and heating in urban areas. The development of thermal districts has been slow due to the uncertainty of demand and the lack of methods for estimating potential demands. However, the information needed for estimating district cooling potential is scarce in many cities, and the existing methodologies need to be adapted to specific conditions. This paper develops a methodology to estimate the potential for developing district cooling based on cities' climate and economic activities. The proposed methodology is applied in 13 Colombian metropolitan areas to identify potential clusters for district cooling according to the geographical distribution of buildings. The results show that the total potential demand for cooling in the 13 cities in Colombia is almost 650 MW. This paper concludes that demand for cooling that could be supplied with the implementation of tailor-made district cooling designed using the local economic characteristics of the cities through the 37 emerging clusters.

The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies such as wind and solar is being encouraged worldwide. Renewable energy investment costs have been dropping, which, combined with growing incentives, has led to a rapid rise in renewable capacity. These changes in the electricity market entail great challenges and uncertainties, specifically due to resource availability. Wind and solar energy depend on seasonal weather conditions to generate energy, such as wind and radiation, respectively. However, few studies have focused on analyzing and measuring the impact of a progressive increase of renewable energy in a short-term electricity market and its effect on energy security. We developed a System Dynamics model to be able to analyze alternative scenarios and levels of uncertainties. We studied the impact of different shares of renewable sources on economic dispatch and energy security through reliability, reserve margin, resilience, and vulnerability measures. High shares of renewable resources (>60%) impact the energy security-reliability (<98%), reserve margin (<-2%), resilience (>4%), and vulnerability-and may lower the spot price due to zero variable costs, which reduce the profitability of conventional firms in the short term and give closure to firms in the middle term and long term. Novelty StatementIn this study, a system dynamics model is proposed to assess the electricity market configuration and the spot price while renewable energy sources (wind and solar) increase and conventional sources fall (hydropower and fossil fuel). Energy security is measured by including energy measures such as reliability, resilience, vulnerability, and reserve margin in a day-ahead market. The penetration of renewable energy creates a horizontal movement of the supply curve to the right, affecting wholesale electricity price, energy security, and firms' profitability. Highlights The effect of different shares of renewable energy in a day-ahead electricity market was studied. Energy security under renewable energy share on economic dispatch was considered.The analyses were performed using a system dynamics model for a theoretical market. High shares of renewable resources may lower the spot price due to zero variable costs. Low spot price reduces the profitability of both conventional and nonconventional firms.

Concerns about climate change have required energy policy to be reconsidered around the world. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy has the potential to contribute significantly to the goals of the Paris Agreement (2015), particularly in the developing world. The recent evolution of total installed capacity of electricity mix in eight South American countries and the current renewable energy policy is considered. Indications of an energy paradox are seen: the installed share of thermal capacity increases as energy demand grows, decreasing the share of renewable energy despite the government's stated policy and commitment to increasing renewables in electricity generation through incentives and regulations. The share of installed hydro compared to thermal generation declined from 2007 to 2017 in Chile, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. Furthermore, South American countries are unlikely to reach the aforementioned share of renewables in the energy matrix, with the exception of Uruguay. Thus, organic growth of renewables may not be enough in a region with high potential and a long history of low emissions from electricity. It may be necessary for governments to more actively prioritize, regulate, and support inclusive subsidies for both public and private investors in the electricity sector to reduce the risk of climate change and achieve greenhouse gas reduction goals.

Climate change is likely to affect water availability and therefore hydropower generation in many regions of the world. In drying regions, hydropower generation may be impaired, creating a need for new power investments that would otherwise have been unnecessary. In this study we apply two partial equilibrium models (GCAM and TIAM-ECN) and two general equilibrium models (MEG4C and Phoenix) to identify possible pathways of power sector adaptation for Colombia under climate change. We adopt two GCM projections that deteriorate hydropower generation over the next three decades, and simulate each for two radiative forcing scenarios (RCP8.5 and RCP4.5). Relative to Colombia's projected power demand growth over the coming decades, losses in hydropower generation are marginal. Nonetheless, climate-driven losses in hydropower must be compensated by alternative technologies´expansion, which vary significantly across models. When climate policy is implemented (RCP4.5), three distinct expansion pathways emerge: increased solar and wind energy (TIAM-ECN); significant power demand reductions (Phoenix and MEG4C); and increased fossil resources with carbon dioxide capture and storage (GCAM). We show the need to explore the tradeoffs/synergies among alternative expansion pathways and their potential impacts on other sectors (e.g. water and land), and for effective policies to incentivize their adoption in Colombia.

This article provides an estimation of the future demand of construction materials in Colombia and necessary minerals to produce them by using systems dynamic and analysis of materials flows. Through the analysis of materials flows the amount of minerals required for the production of cement and concrete are determined. Required production of cement and concrete is estimated through a model of systems dynamic, which is adjusted with data from DANE construction census. Results indicate that, disregarding the secondary offer of materials, 176.9 million tons of ground aggregates, river sand, gray cement, dead rock, and cooked ceramic would be required. Manufacture of cement and concrete would require 15.4 million tons of lime, 14.9 million tons of gravel, 14.1 million tons of gypsum, and 13.3, 9.7, and 9.3 million tons of clay, iron minerals, and sand, respectively.

In order to assess the sustainability of the consumption of construction materials in Colombia, we analyze the patterns of consumption of these materials between 1990 and 2013. We use domestic consumption of materials, consumption of materials per capita, and intensity of consumption of construction materials as sustainability indicators. Results show that the domestic consumption of construction materials has increased since 1998 until reaching a share in the domestic consumption of materials only inferior to the share of biomass. We find that the ratio of domestic material consumption to GDP decreased during the period of analysis and that changes in construction techniques partially explain the diminishing intensity of consumption of construction materials in Colombia.

Con el fin de evaluar la sostenibilidad del consumo de materiales de construcción en Colombia, en este artículo se analizan los patrones de consumo de dichos materiales entre los años 1990 y 2013. Los indicadores de sostenibilidad evaluados son el consumo doméstico, el consumo doméstico per cápita y la intensidad de consumo. Se encuentra que el consumo doméstico de materiales de construcción aumentó desde 1998 hasta alcanzar una participación en el consumo doméstico de materiales relativamente inferior a la de la biomasa. Los resultados indican que la relación consumo doméstico de materiales de construcción/PIB disminuyó durante el periodo de análisis, y que la aplicación de nuevas técnicas de construcción explica en parte los cambios en la intensidad del consumo de estos materiales.

Con la presencia de asentamientos hidroelectricos en su territorio, los municipios del oriente y nordeste antioqueno han visto afectada su estructura tributaria y territorial, a pesar de la reglamentacion compen­satoria del sector electrico. Este articulo, analiza los efectos tributarios generados por la compensacion del impuesto predial. Para lograrlo se revisan los montos recibidos por los municipios de las empresas generadoras y se realiza una indagacion empirica del impuesto bajo los escenarios con y sin asenta­mientos hidroelectricos. De esta forma se determina el diferencial tributario. Se concluye que, ademas de la insuficiencia de las transferencias para compensar la perdida del capital natural de las cuencas hidroelectricas, la expansion del sector electrico genera regresividad tributaria, por causa de privilegios y exenciones concebidos por las Leyes.