Author(s)

W.E. Hutchinson

Abstract

Environmental management problem models are usually approached in a quantitative, scientific way. The assumption made when doing this is that the elements, boundaries, and relationships in the system can be defined. Most of these situations are however, a complex mix of social and technical problems. The assumptions about the nature of the problem cannot be taken for granted. The initial stage of defining the various views of what should be included in the system is very often ignored. It is this stage in which qualitative systems techniques should be used. This paper examines a case study where the techniques were used to define what was required before any quantitative models were produced to model possible scenarios. Introdu

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