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Prof. Bernard Amadei
University of Colorado Boulder

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0 Human Development
0 Systems Approach
0 Engineering Application
0 Geological engineering
0 Community and Rural Development

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Human Development
Systems Approach

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Short Biography

Dr. Amadei is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Amadei is the Founding Director of the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities; the Founding President of Engineers Without Borders - USA, and the co-founder of the Engineers Without Borders -International network.

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Journal article
Published: 26 February 2021 in Sustainability
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As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, the value proposition of promoting sustainability and peace in the world has become more imperative than ever. It is an appropriate time to pause and reflect on what a post-pandemic COVID-19 world will look like and what constitutes a new mindset toward a more sustainable, stable, peaceful, and equitable world where all humans live with dignity and at peace. As emphasized in this paper, the new mindset must acknowledge that sustainability and peace are two entangled states of dynamic equilibrium. It is hard to envision a sustainable world that is not peaceful and a peaceful world that has not endorsed sustainable practices. This paper looks more specifically at the value proposition of adopting a systems approach to capture the linkages between selected development sectors (e.g., SDGs) and peace sectors (e.g., positive, negative, and cultural). Basic system dynamics (SD) models are presented to illustrate the peace–development nexus dynamics. The models are general enough to be used for different contexts and scales.

ACS Style

Bernard Amadei. Systemic Modeling of the Peace–Development Nexus. Sustainability 2021, 13, 2522 .

AMA Style

Bernard Amadei. Systemic Modeling of the Peace–Development Nexus. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (5):2522.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bernard Amadei. 2021. "Systemic Modeling of the Peace–Development Nexus." Sustainability 13, no. 5: 2522.

Journal article
Published: 11 January 2021 in Sustainability Science
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This paper uses a systems approach to model the coherence and linkages between peace and sustainability. These two interconnected dynamic states emerge from the interaction of multiple systems and subsystems and unfold in a landscape of specific context and scale. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all unified and optimized static state of peace, the same way as there are no individual united and optimized stationary states of sustainability or sustainability–peace coherence. Each has “to be read as a plural.” Studies have shown that these states are difficult to conceptualize for different scales and contexts, let alone quantity. The paper first reviews several definitions of sustainability and peace, and explores their linkages at the community scale. Guidelines for a systems approach to address sustainability, peace, and their nexus are suggested. A generic system dynamics model is proposed as an aid to capture, albeit with a high level of abstraction, the complex dynamics between sustainability and peace.

ACS Style

Bernard Amadei. A systems approach to the sustainability–peace nexus. Sustainability Science 2021, 16, 1111 -1124.

AMA Style

Bernard Amadei. A systems approach to the sustainability–peace nexus. Sustainability Science. 2021; 16 (4):1111-1124.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bernard Amadei. 2021. "A systems approach to the sustainability–peace nexus." Sustainability Science 16, no. 4: 1111-1124.

Journal article
Published: 20 October 2020 in Challenges
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Capacity and resilience are two closely aligned concepts in human development. They both contribute to increasing the ability of societies to cope with and adapt to challenging and adverse perturbations that may affect systems the societies depend upon. A traditional approach to building capacity and resilience at the community scale is to address in a fragmented manner specific issues at play in institutional, socio-economic, environmental, and infrastructure systems that may prevent the delivery of adequate community services and meeting development goals. This compartmentalized approach, driven by a need to reach some form of satisfactory community equilibrium, fails to recognize the interactions and interconnectedness that exist among community systems, which, if addressed, could solve multiple issues more effectively. It also does not account for the complex, adaptive, and dynamic nature of communities. A resilient community is more than just a collection of well-functioning silos. This paper proposes a system dynamics approach to account for the dynamic and adaptive nature of communities when developing capacity-building strategies toward strengthening their ability to deliver services and deal with adverse events. A case study of small-scale community capacity assessment around the service of wastewater and sewage treatment published elsewhere is presented to illustrate the proposed approach.

ACS Style

Bernard Amadei. A Systems Approach to Building Community Capacity and Resilience. Challenges 2020, 11, 28 .

AMA Style

Bernard Amadei. A Systems Approach to Building Community Capacity and Resilience. Challenges. 2020; 11 (2):28.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bernard Amadei. 2020. "A Systems Approach to Building Community Capacity and Resilience." Challenges 11, no. 2: 28.

Journal article
Published: 20 July 2020 in Challenges
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This paper explores the applicability of the agent-based (AB) and system dynamics (SD) methods to model a case study of the management of water field services. Water borehole sites are distributed over an area and serve the water needs of a population. The equipment at all borehole sites is managed by a single water utility that has adopted specific repair, replacement, and maintenance rules and policies. The water utility employs several service crews initially stationed at a single central location. The crews respond to specific operation and maintenance requests. Two software modeling tools (AnyLogic and STELLA) are used to explore the benefits and limitations of the AB and SD methods to simulate the dynamic being considered. The strength of the AB method resides in its ability to capture in a disaggregated way the mobility of the individual service crews and the performance of the equipment (working, repaired, replaced, or maintained) at each borehole site. The SD method cannot capture the service crew dynamics explicitly and can only model the average state of the equipment at the borehole sites. Their differences aside, both methods offer policymakers the opportunity to make strategic, tactical, and logistical decisions supported by integrated computational models.

ACS Style

Bernard Amadei. Agent-Based and System Dynamics Modeling of Water Field Services. Challenges 2020, 11, 13 .

AMA Style

Bernard Amadei. Agent-Based and System Dynamics Modeling of Water Field Services. Challenges. 2020; 11 (2):13.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bernard Amadei. 2020. "Agent-Based and System Dynamics Modeling of Water Field Services." Challenges 11, no. 2: 13.

Journal article
Published: 16 June 2020 in Technological Forecasting and Social Change
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This paper looks at peace with an integrated perspective. As a state, peace cannot be measured directly and requires the use of proxies and indicators. This paper revisits the positive peace index (PPI) introduced by the Institute for Economy and Peace (IEP) through the lens of systems thinking and modeling. Three sets of systems tools (cross-impact analysis, network analysis, and system dynamics) are proposed to explicitly account for the different levels of influence and dependence among the eight domains used to determine the PPI at the country level. Although more comprehensive than the original IEP formulation, the integrated approach proposed herein requires decisionmakers to be systems thinkers and able to conduct a detailed analysis of how the eight domains influence (impact) or depend on (sensitive to) each other. The proposed approach allows decisionmakers to capture the multidimensional and cross-disciplinary nature of positive peace better. This paper also shows that the three components of peace (positive, negative, and cultural) initially proposed by Johan Galtung can be represented using three-dimensional geometric features.

ACS Style

Bernard Amadei. Revisiting positive peace using systems tools. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 2020, 158, 120149 .

AMA Style

Bernard Amadei. Revisiting positive peace using systems tools. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 2020; 158 ():120149.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bernard Amadei. 2020. "Revisiting positive peace using systems tools." Technological Forecasting and Social Change 158, no. : 120149.

Journal article
Published: 14 October 2019 in Sustainability
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A sustainable world must be a peaceful world, or it will not be. Engineers in the twenty-first century need to be more than providers of technical solutions, they also need to play an active role in peacebuilding efforts and contribute to diplomacy. This paper discusses the importance of developing peace engineering programs to educate global engineers with the attitudes, hard and soft skills, and knowledge necessary to work in the complex and challenging context of human development in their lifetime. There is an urgent need to develop an international community of practice in peace engineering and engineering diplomacy. The engineering profession must contribute to a culture of peace and take the lead in developing a peace-industrial complex.

ACS Style

Bernard Amadei. Engineering for Peace and Diplomacy. Sustainability 2019, 11, 5646 .

AMA Style

Bernard Amadei. Engineering for Peace and Diplomacy. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (20):5646.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bernard Amadei. 2019. "Engineering for Peace and Diplomacy." Sustainability 11, no. 20: 5646.

Monograph
Published: 07 August 2014 in Engineering for Sustainable Human Development
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ACS Style

Bernard Amadei. Engineering for Sustainable Human Development. Engineering for Sustainable Human Development 2014, 1 .

AMA Style

Bernard Amadei. Engineering for Sustainable Human Development. Engineering for Sustainable Human Development. 2014; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bernard Amadei. 2014. "Engineering for Sustainable Human Development." Engineering for Sustainable Human Development , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 01 April 2010 in Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
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Entering the first half of the 21st century, the engineering profession must embrace a new mission statement—to contribute to the building of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world. In particular, the engineering profession needs to train a new generation of engineers who can better meet the challenges of the developing world and address the needs of the most destitute people on our planet. This paper presents a model of integrating humanitarian development into engineering education based on our experience with Engineers Without Borders-U.S.A. and the development of the Engineering for Developing Communities program at the University of Colorado at Boulder over the past eight years. We also review some like-minded programs in U.S. universities and discuss how such programs can be integrated into engineering education.

ACS Style

Bernard Amadei; Robyn Sandekian. Model of Integrating Humanitarian Development into Engineering Education. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice 2010, 136, 84 -92.

AMA Style

Bernard Amadei, Robyn Sandekian. Model of Integrating Humanitarian Development into Engineering Education. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice. 2010; 136 (2):84-92.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bernard Amadei; Robyn Sandekian. 2010. "Model of Integrating Humanitarian Development into Engineering Education." Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice 136, no. 2: 84-92.

Journal article
Published: 04 December 2009 in IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
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Although the work of engineers has contributed enormously worldwide to economic development and quality of life, the unintended consequences of engineers' work also have often caused harm to natural and social systems. Furthermore, the engineers' work is delivered predominantly to developed nations, leaving underdeveloped nations without adequate facilities and infrastructure to build sustainable economies. While these effects have been criticized for at least three decades, the engineering community has struggled with how to respond. Top-down approaches for delivering aid to underdeveloped nations have had questionable results. At the same time, and surprisingly, engineers have not been closely involved in the technical aspects of these aid efforts. What is needed is a new form of engineering project delivery, an approach that meets the technical and social challenges involved in working in underdeveloped communities, but at the same time delivers appropriate and sustainable solutions. A new form of engineering education is needed, one that covers a wide range of technical and non-technical issues, including water provisioning and purification, sanitation, public health, power production, shelter, site planning, infrastructure, food production and distribution, and communication.

ACS Style

B. Amadei; W.A. Wallace. Engineering for humanitarian development. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 2009, 28, 6 -15.

AMA Style

B. Amadei, W.A. Wallace. Engineering for humanitarian development. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. 2009; 28 (4):6-15.

Chicago/Turabian Style

B. Amadei; W.A. Wallace. 2009. "Engineering for humanitarian development." IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 28, no. 4: 6-15.

Journal article
Published: 20 November 2009 in Sustainability
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The engineering profession should embrace a new mission statement—to contribute to the building of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world. Recently, engineering students and professionals in the United States have shown strong interest in directly addressing the needs of developing communities worldwide. That interest has taken the form of short-and medium-term international trips through Engineers Without Borders—USA and similar organizations. There are also several instances where this kind of outreach work has been integrated into engineering education at various US institutions such as the University of Colorado at Boulder. This paper addresses the challenges and opportunities associated with balancing two goals in engineering for humanitarian development projects: (i) effective sustainable community development, and (ii) meaningful education of engineers. Guiding principles necessary to meet those two goals are proposed.

ACS Style

Bernard Amadei; Robyn Sandekian; Evan Thomas. A Model for Sustainable Humanitarian Engineering Projects. Sustainability 2009, 1, 1087 -1105.

AMA Style

Bernard Amadei, Robyn Sandekian, Evan Thomas. A Model for Sustainable Humanitarian Engineering Projects. Sustainability. 2009; 1 (4):1087-1105.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bernard Amadei; Robyn Sandekian; Evan Thomas. 2009. "A Model for Sustainable Humanitarian Engineering Projects." Sustainability 1, no. 4: 1087-1105.

Journal article
Published: 18 June 2009 in Environment, Development and Sustainability
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The current trend in foreign aid is toward small-scale sustainable development projects in partnership with defined communities. However, these projects are subject to the influences of self-interested human behavior, poorly defined community structures and resources and organizational constraints that can prevent full realization of development models. Under these constraints, attempting participatory community development models to the exclusion of other techniques may not be the most effective way to achieve positive change. Instead, development agencies should consider adopting other proven elements of development in combination with the spirit of community development to achieve a positive impact within the community and organizational structures and ensure accountability for success. A small-scale attempted, sustainable development case study in Rwanda is reviewed, as well as a new concept for larger scale development integrating ‘carbon credits’. Additionally, a development accreditation organization is proposed to ensure additional accountability in this field.

ACS Style

Evan Thomas; Bernard Amadei. Accounting for human behavior, local conditions and organizational constraints in humanitarian development models. Environment, Development and Sustainability 2009, 12, 313 -327.

AMA Style

Evan Thomas, Bernard Amadei. Accounting for human behavior, local conditions and organizational constraints in humanitarian development models. Environment, Development and Sustainability. 2009; 12 (3):313-327.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Evan Thomas; Bernard Amadei. 2009. "Accounting for human behavior, local conditions and organizational constraints in humanitarian development models." Environment, Development and Sustainability 12, no. 3: 313-327.