Environmental problems are among the most complex problems facing humanity. As the population increases and our industrial development consumes the limited resources, the issue of sustainability becomes more important. Environmental problems arise in the context of a complex interaction among people, industry and the environment or the eco system. Policy makers must take into account how their policies will impact the delicate balance of nature on which the sustainability of human life rests.
Let's take a look at an example that deals with fisheries. This model shows how the overuse of a common resource can lead to the complete depletion of the resource when all players act in their own self interest. As the fishing company's revenue goes up, it buys more ships thus acceleration the process of fish depletion.
As the number of fish in a certain fishing area increases, there is more incentive to increase the fleet of ships leading to an increase in the rate of catch per year. The graph below shows the behavior of the system over a 12 year period.
The interesting part of the picture is the sudden depletion of the fish followed by a drastic reduction in the profitability.
Models of this type can be built for many aspects of sustainable utilization of natural resources. MapSys can be used for designing sustainable environmental policies by allowing you to perform many what-if studies in order to find the most effective policies.
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