Modelling human-environment systems in transdisciplinary processes

There is an increased tendency in scientific projects to include different disciplines, policy makers, practitioners, and the general public in unstructured, complex, or potential environmental problems resulting from human activities. Such problems may sometimes be associated with strong value-laden and contested issues. Integrated assessment modelling (IAM) or decision support systems (DSS) are used in transdisciplinarity (TD) settings to organize processes of mutual learning in science and society. In its ideal form, a TD process is characterized by joint leadership, with representatives from the science community and legitimized decision makers having equal roles. We present and briefly illustrate our TD approach to guide a participatory process and indicate important issues to aid IAM and DSS endeavours.