Transcript system dynamics approach in science

SYSTEM DYNAMICS APPROACH IN SCIENCE
Dr. Antonio Gallo
Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Piacenza
The object of the course will be to introduce for the students formal and computer
(numerical) bases of system dynamics (SD) modeling. SD allows for simple but also
powerful tools for the interpretation of complex dynamical systems and its application
regards all fields of biological and environmental sciences. In a first part of the course, the
essential components of the SD structure (stocks, flows, auxiliary variables, feed-back loops
and time delays) will be presented and used to build and simulate simple SD models. Then,
other analytical tools, such as methods for estimation of dynamic models (e.g. derivatives of
maximum likelihood and indirect inference), optimization process and control of these
systems (e.g. approximate dynamic programming), formalizing the links between model
structure and behavior (e.g. eigenvalue analysis) or decision analysis (e.g. decision trees) will
be studied and applied to more complex SD models. Practical examples will be
complementary to theory lessons to facilitate students in the understanding of fundamental
principles of system thinking and model building.