Session: Transdisciplinarity and Modelling: Knowledge Integration

Achieving sustainable development requires a transition from the current state of the human- environment system (e.g., values, norms, policies, infrastructure and economics), to a more sustainable one. It is agreed upon that this transition cannot be supported by the knowledge of a single scientific discipline alone. There is a need to develop tools which are able to exchange and produce knowledge at the interface between disciplines as well as between science and society. Furthermore, science should develop tools for anticipating potential outcomes of scenarios and strategies, e.g., societally relevant decisions and policies and assessing them from a sustainability perspective. Thus, two elements seem key to support a transition towards sustainability from a scientific perspective: transdisciplinarity and simulation modeling.