Modelling wind turbine diffusion: a comparative study of California and Denmark 1980-1995

Energy Transition in The Dutch Dwelling Stock: Exploring the Extent of Inertia Against Change

The residential sector accounts for 30% of the total energy consumed by all sectors on average worldwide. This significant share makes an energy transition in the residential sector one of the most important frontiers of sustainability transitions. Netherlands aims to achieve a remarkable reduction in the energy consumption in residential...

A Simulation-based Analysis of Transition Pathways for the Dutch Electricity System

Recent developments constitute a backdrop of change for the Dutch electricity system. Institutional change driven by liberalization, changing economical competitiveness of the dominant fuels, new technologies, and changing end-user preferences regarding electricity supply are some examples of these developments. In order to analyze the conjoint...

Energy Transitions towards Sustainability I: A Staged Exploration of Complexity and Deep Uncertainty

This paper illustrates the use of Exploratory System Dynamics Modeling and Analysis – a multi-method combining System Dynamics and Exploratory Modeling and Analysis to explore and analyze uncertain dynamic issues and test deep policy robustness. This paper gives an overview of the current state of this multi-method by means of an illustration....

Analyzing Transition Dynamics: The Actor-Option Framework for Modelling Socio-Technical Systems

Transition can be characterized as long-term structural changes in the societal systems, through which the way these systems function change significantly. Both the scope and extent of change, and the nature of the societal systems make transition processes a complex dynamic phenomena to understand. This study explores both methodological and...

Essential Skills for System Dynamics Practitioners: A Delft University of Technology Perspective

There is little consensus on the skills set required of a system dynamics practitioner. In this paper we use the teaching approach and learning goals of the system dynamics courses at the Delft University of Technology as a starting point to explore the development of system dynamics modeling skills. System dynamics is embedded in the curriculum...

Studying transition dynamics via focusing on underlying feedback interactions: Modelling the Dutch waste management transition

The emerging need for societal transitions raises the need for a better understanding of the dynamic nature of large scale societal systems, and therefore the development of an analytical approach for drawing dynamic conclusions based on system’s dynamic mechanisms, feedback relationships and interacting components. The objective of this study...

The Impact of Aggregation Assumptions and Social Network Structure on Diffusion Dynamics

Diffusion problems in general, and innovation diffusion problems in specific, are one of the most frequently revisited issues in system dynamics domain. Although the models used for analyzing specific diffusion problems differ in details, in most cases a set of assumptions is recognized to be common. In this study, we aim to conduct a set of...

Communicating model insights using interactive learning environments

Much attention is focused on the rational and advisory style of developing and applying System Dynamics models. Even group model building focuses primarily on the formulation and understanding of the model by the group members themselves. There is a dearth of attention for communication of the insights derived during the model building process...

Hop, Step, Step and Jump: Towards Real-World Complexity @ Delft University of Technology

This paper deals with System Dynamics education at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. It focuses more specifically on the quadruple jump approach towards dealing with real-world dynamic complexity. The paper starts with an overview of the System Dynamics courses, situated within the broader curriculum. Then recent innovations in...

When does it really make a difference? Experimenting with the level of actor-heterogeneity in the context of modeling sociotechnical transitions

This study constitutes a methodological inquiry in a larger research context on transition dynamics, and it focuses on the issue of actor heterogeneity in modeling such processes. On the one hand heterogeneity at the actor level (i.e. heterogeneity among actor groups, heterogeneity among actors in a particular group, etc.) seems to be a very...

Investigating an automated method for the sensitivity analysis of functions

Automated sensitivity analysis approaches in system dynamics focus primarily on model parameters. Although table functions are often subjectively approximated, they do not form the focus of most sensitivity analyses. Recently, a promising approach that allows automation of sensitivity analysis on functions was proposed by Hearne (2010), but the...