The Lake Urmia vignette: a tool to assess understanding of complexity in socio‐environmental systems

Abstract

We introduce the Lake Urmia Vignette (LUV) as a tool to assess individuals' understanding of complexity in socio‐environmental systems. LUV is based on a real‐world case and includes a short vignette describing an environmental catastrophe involving a lake. Over a few decades, significant issues have manifested themselves at the lake because of various social, political, economic, and environmental factors. We design a rubric for assessing responses to a prompt. A pilot test with a sample of 30 engineering graduate students is conducted. We compare responses to LUV with other measures. Our findings suggest that students' understanding of complexity is positively associated with their understanding of systems concepts such as feedback loops but not with other possible variables such as self‐reported systems thinking skills or systems‐related coursework. Based on the provided instructions, researchers can use LUV as a novel assessment tool to examine understanding of complexity in socio‐environmental systems. © 2020 System Dynamics Society

Using group model building to frame the commercial determinants of dietary behaviour in adolescence – proposed methods for online system mapping workshops

“…online vs face-to-face). A deeper understanding of complex systems methodologies, including the aforementioned interacting feedback loops, time-delays, and accumulations, might have further improved the final maps [ 25 , 26 ].…”

“…By using systems thinking tools, adolescents confirmed their understanding of this complex system at the level of recognising that all the factors they mentioned were interconnected, they recognised their interdependencies and highlighted important reinforcing feedback loops when analysing system outcomes (i.e. a food system which gives preference to unhealthy vs healthy food choices), and suggested interventions to balance the system in favour of healthy food choices [ 25 ].…”

Investigating student approaches to scenario-based assessments of systems thinking

“…The second assessment, the Lake Urmia Vignette, was framed using a definition of systems thinking grounded in system dynamics (Davis et al, 2020). From this definition, systems thinking is about examining physical and social systems as a whole and identifying connections between different parts of the system (Meadows, 2008).…”

“…Grohs et al (2018) explicitly define the problem definition phase and stakeholder perspectives as integral to systems thinking. Similarly, Davis et al (2020) implicitly assess students' ability to define the problem through the identification of variables and agents. While the scoring scheme of Davis et al 's assessment focuses primarily on the interconnectedness of different variables, both stakeholders and physical resources are taken into account.…”

“…The Village of Abeesee poses intentionally vague prompts after a brief vignette and does not value a specific problem approach over others (Grohs et al, 2018). The Lake Urmia Vignette presents a socially and politically complicated problem with decades of history that influences possible technical solutions (Davis et al, 2020).…”