Choice Architecture as a Way to Encourage a Whole Systems Design Perspective for More Sustainable Infrastructure

Nora Harris,Tripp Shealy,Leidy Klotz

doi:10.3390/su9010054

Nora Harris, Tripp Shealy + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su9010054

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Abstract

Across fields, more sustainable and resilient outcomes are being realized through a whole systems design perspective, which guides decision-makers to consider the entire system affected including interdependent physical and social networks. Although infrastructure is extremely interdependent, consisting of diverse stakeholders and networks, the infrastructure design and construction process is often fragmented. This fragmentation can result in unnecessary tradeoffs, leading to poor outcomes for certain stakeholders and the surrounding environment. A whole systems design perspective would help connect this fragmented industry and lead to more sustainable outcomes. For example, a whole systems design approach to relieve traffic on a highway might see beyond the obvious, but often ineffective, response of adding a new vehicle lane to encourage a solution such as repurposing existing road lanes from automobiles to above-ground “subway” systems. This paper discusses influences to whole systems design and how intentional choice architecture, meaning the way decisions are posed, can nudge decision-makers to employ whole systems design and result in more sustainable infrastructure. By uncovering these influences and organizing them by the social, organizational, and individual levels of the infrastructure design process, this paper provides the needed foundation for interdisciplinary research to help harness these influences through choice architecture and whole systems design for the infrastructure industry.

Highlights

Infrastructure is inherently interdependent and these interdependencies are often bidirectional, meaning each infrastructure influences the state of another [1]
Understanding how to promote whole systems design in the infrastructure industry using choice architecture has the potential to lead to low cost implementation that would have a dramatic increase on the sustainability of infrastructure, for example, a request for proposal that does not prescribe the exact solution, but is instead vague and asks for innovative solutions to a particular problem
The previous section gives only a few examples of where choice architecture has been tested in the framework of infrastructure decisions

Summary

Introduction

Infrastructure is inherently interdependent and these interdependencies are often bidirectional, meaning each infrastructure influences the state of another [1]. Is the electric power grid dependent on rail transportation for natural gas, rail transportation is dependent on electricity for network and communication operations. These infrastructure interdependencies influence the entire surrounding community and affect the public’s mobility, health, and economic development [2,3]. When applied to complex design issues, whole systems design aims to optimize the performance of an entire system rather than an individual part [5]. Systems thinking has been used in hospital operations modeling to define a hospital system in order to accurately portray the hospital state, which includes the events surrounding the hospital resources, patients, and staff [4]

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