A Systems Framework For Sustainability

This chapter approaches sustainability as an emergent holistic property of hard, soft, or hybrid systems including large and often complex system of systems. In the concept of sustainable systems within the realm of Gaia, such attributes should include energy, natural resources and ecosystem dependencies, environmental stability, technology safety and security and dependability, biodiversity, resource cycling, human-nature interactive complexity and biogeochemical cycles. A large and complex system of systems can possess a wide range of sustainability qualities at macro level. The systems framework is developed and represented in weighted factors analysis methodology (WeFA). The macro concept of a sustainable system is qualitatively assessed for the sustainability of macro systems, such as global economic system, environmental system, transportation system, information system, agriculture system, energy and global climate system. The chapter focuses on investing in network security that should always seek to move the organization nearer to securing the entire network.