Equity and modeling in sustainability science: Examples and opportunities throughout the process

Abstract

Equity is core to sustainability, but current interventions to enhance sustainability often fall short in adequately addressing this linkage. Models are important tools for informing action, and their development and use present opportunities to center equity in process and outcomes. This Perspective highlights progress in integrating equity into systems modeling in sustainability science, as well as key challenges, tensions, and future directions. We present a conceptual framework for equity in systems modeling, focused on its distributional, procedural, and recognitional dimensions. We discuss examples of how modelers engage with these different dimensions throughout the modeling process and from across a range of modeling approaches and topics, including water resources, energy systems, air quality, and conservation. Synthesizing across these examples, we identify significant advances in enhancing procedural and recognitional equity by reframing models as tools to explore pluralism in worldviews and knowledge systems; enabling models to better represent distributional inequity through new computational techniques and data sources; investigating the dynamics that can drive inequities by linking different modeling approaches; and developing more nuanced metrics for assessing equity outcomes. We also identify important future directions, such as an increased focus on using models to identify pathways to transform underlying conditions that lead to inequities and move toward desired futures. By looking at examples across the diverse fields within sustainability science, we argue that there are valuable opportunities for mutual learning on how to use models more effectively as tools to support sustainable and equitable futures.

Research to Confront Climate Change Complexity: Intersectionality, Integration, and Innovative Governance

“…First, climate-focused, complex-systems models and studies can become more inclusive in terms of who they include, where, and how (Giang et al, 2024;Jafino et al, 2021). Many climate impact assessments now consider how intersectional identities contribute to social vulnerability.…”

“…Third, existing models-especially agent-based models-can include more specific governance actors that reflect public, private, and civic decision-making over societal responses to climate change (Giang et al, 2024). In the U.S. context, for example, corporations decide whether or not to continue insuring an area, banks decide whether to extend mortgages to flood-prone areas, and associations govern engineering and design codes (Keenan & Bradt, 2020;Kousky, 2022;Shi & Moser, 2021).…”

Showcasing advances and building community in modeling for sustainability

“…As theoretical and empirical work advances in better understanding the functional relationships between resources and human well-being, models will have an important role to play in further developing analyses that resonate with longer-term sustainability questions. Further, though there has been much progress as summarized by Giang et al ( 16 ), many modeling efforts continue to reinforce dominant power dynamics and existing inequities. Further attention to equity and justice considerations in modeling is increasingly important if models are to be fully leveraged in efforts to promote sustainability.…”

“…To further highlight the importance of equity in modeling, we highlight this issue in our second Perspective. In that Perspective, Giang et al ( 16 ) discuss how modelers engage with distributional, procedural, and recognitional dimensions of equity in all four stages of modeling practice, with examples drawn from topical case studies including those related to water resources, energy systems, air quality, and conservation.…”