5.+Context+Sensitive+Design

Authors Andy Jensen, Ryan Hazelwood, Courtney Flemming, Shannon Reynolds

5.1 Chapter Goals
The goals of this chapter are to define and discuss Context Sensitive Design and Systems Thinking. Both concepts are about looking at projects from a broader perspective rather than focusing on each individual task. By utilizing this problem solving approach people hope to solve problems more efficiently, and more importantly prevent other larger problems from happening in the future.

5.2 Context Sensitive Design
"Context Sensitive Design (CSD) is the art of creating public works projects that meet the needs of the users, the neighboring communities, and the environment. It integrates projects into the context or setting in a sensitive manner through careful planning, consideration of different perspectives, and tailoring designs to particular project circumstances." - Minnesota Department of Transportation [1]

CSD requires that stakeholders get involved early and work together throughout the planning and construction process to ensure that projects are in harmony with the natural, social, economic, and cultural environment. By taking all factors into consideration the project is going to have a better chance of having a positive impact on the environment and surrounding community. A big part of Costa Rica's culture is their environment and culture. To limit the impact on the environment and to be more sustainable it is in the best interest of all parties involved to take into consideration all factors to ensure that their culture and way of life stay intact.

CSD allows for changes in roadway design such as traffic calming, streetscape improvements, pedestrian improvements and bicycle improvements that aren't part of conventional design standards. Conventional design standards often reflect the idea that bigger is better, the more lanes there are the more cars there can be and the cars can go faster. This leads to increased construction costs and roadways that aren't designed with safety and the surrounding community in mind.

CSD allows experts from outside the engineering field to help with the project and add their expertise to the solution process. By creating an interdisciplinary team this helps solve both the obvious and the hidden problems because more people with different view points are there to help. Having an interdisciplinary team helps to prevent problems before they even happen. This can save millions of dollars in the long run and more importantly save lives.

Every project or problem is going to be different and that is what CSD really focuses on. No two roads are the same and if they are built without taking into account the surrounding environment and community then that is where problems occur. This is why it is called Context Sensitive Design because the "context" needs to be the focused on. There's more than just one way to build a road.

5.2.1 Context Sensitive Design - Case Study

 * Iowa Case Study**

//"There were several projects in the late 1970s and 1980s that were at a dead stop in Iowa because the public would not buy into our project design." Said Tom Welch of the Office of Traffic and Safety, who was formerly the deputy of the Office of Project Planning. "They just wouldn't accept a four-lane road cutting right through the heart of what they valued."//

//For residents of Cedar Falls, the U.S. 58 project as originally proposed by the Iowa DOT would have major impacts on several neighborhoods, parks and sensitive environmental areas. They were vehemently opposed to the project.//

//When Mr. Welch was handed the "dead" project back in the mid 1980s he went back to stakeholders with the usual range of alternatives and project presentations styles and the public rejected the proposals again. Mr. Welch said, "There was definitely a credibility problem. They (the citizens) were convinced we wanted to build the same type of road, no matter what we said."//

//Mr Welch took the opportunity to walk around the neighborhoods that would be affected. "There was a couple unloading groceries from their car. I stopped to talk to them a little bit and they invited me in. From there we started a neighborhood group meeting in a church basement every other week or so. We convinced them we were willing to listen. It's tough for engineers. We're not trained to be communicators." said Welch.//

//According to Mr. Welch it was a breakthrough project in that public confidence was regained. The public was kept involved and their suggestions were incorporated in the final design and construction. The neighborhood group went from initially opposing the project to recommending the city council support the final design, which included a number of suggestions the citizens had made in the design concept.//

//"It was a lot of work, much more than if we would have just held the mandatory meetings," Tom Welch admitted. "We had to take off our 'engineer hats' and function more as teachers. We explained the issues involved and the advantages and disadvantages of their suggestions, and we too the time to thoroughly study their ideas. It was well worth the extra effort" [2]//

5.3 Systems Thinking
System thinking is a problem solving approach that studies entities as a whole, and closely looks at the different levels of systems. Within each system there are various sub-systems and super-systems. The idea is to look at problems on a larger level as part of an overall system, rather than just an isolated problem. These problems can be best understood in the context of how they relate to the whole system and their relationship with other components of that system, sub-systems and/or super-system. By doing so the potential to solve problems and prevent problems that would otherwise be overlooked is greatly increased. System thinking takes into account how things influence one another within a system. In nature for example systems thinking includes air, water, plants, precipitation, animals and everything else that works together to form an ecosystem.

Figure 5.1 shows 7 natural levels of living systems. Problems start when people are only focusing on themselves and just the problems and issues that are right around them. Systems thinking looks at all the different circles to try to come up with the best solution that is beneficial to everyone rather than just one specific entity.



5.3.1 Systems Thinking - Steps
The first step and most important step to systems thinking is to clearly define the system boundaries and the system environment. If your scope is too narrow you are missing the purpose of systems thinking. The goal should be to look at things from the big picture view and try to think and take into consideration everything that could possibly go into the system being analyzed. That being said you also don't want to get too broad of a system that takes into account areas that aren't relevant to the problem at hand. This is why this is the most important part in the systems thinking approach, because it lays the framework for all thesystems and sub systems that follow.

Once the system boundaries are determined the components within the system and their relationship with each other can be decided. Depending on the system and level of detail, various sub and super systems can be established, and how they relate to each other can be decided. Once this is determined a schematic can be drawn to help show what components connect with each other and how they impact the system as a whole. An example of an urban water system schematic is shown in figure 5.2. As you can see from the figure there are numerous connections with each component.



This system can then be broken down to a smaller scale such as a water system for a small community or even further to the water system for an individual house. Systems only need to be broken down to sub and super systems if it's within the scope and it helps solve the problem at hand. By understanding that everything within the system is connected in some way, decisions made with the whole system in mind rather than solely on one aspect of the system will help in preventing other problems in areas that otherwise wouldn't be considered.

5.3.2 Systems Thinking - Analysis and Decision Making
Traditional analysis focuses on breaking down a problem into various pieces and coming up with a solution to that problem. Systems thinking is a completely different approach that helps to look at the big picture when making a decision. Systems thinking is ideal for complex problems or reoccurring problems that have been made worse by past attempts to fix them. An example of systems thinking is the wolf population in Yellowstone National Park. Wolfs were reintroduced back into Yellowstone after having been killed off over 80 years ago. The wolfs were perceived as dangerous to humans and to livestock so the simple and easy solution was to get rid of them and the livestock would flourish. What wasn't taken into consideration was the effects this would have on the surrounding ecosystem. Other wildlife populations such as elk, deer and coyotes started to get out of control because with the wolfs gone they had no real predators to keep their population in balance. This in turn had an affect on other animals because of their overpopulation. The park rangers thought they could control the population of the elk and other species on their own and this proved unsuccessful. Once they took a step back and looked at the park as a whole and all of the systems involved they came to the conclusion that by reintroducing wolves in small numbers they would help fix the problems in the park.

5.3.3 Systems Thinking - Example
A more detailed example of systems thinking is a hotel in Costa Rica called Rancho Margot. The goal of this hotel is to become nearly 100% self sustainable. Certain problems arise when trying to becoming self sustainable, they need to create their own food, water and power and treat their waste on site. Careful consideration needs to be taken when deciding where to implement these components so as to not affect the surrounding ecosystem. A potential problem could be insects. Having the livestock and farm so close to each other Rancho Margot runs the risk of having flies and other insects that could be detrimental to the success of their farm and plants. A simple solution would be to just spray insecticide to kill all the bugs. This would solve the bug problem, but would it create other problems in different areas. Would the water supply be contaminated? Do those bugs eat other bugs that now will become a problem? Will the insecticide harm the food?

Once the problem has been determined the first step in creating a system for this hotel is to define its boundaries. The boundaries should include all of the components that are used to help make the ranch what it is. The next step is to list out all the components and how they connect to each other. Next a sub system of the farm and any other components that have a direct connection to the farm that might help solve the problem should be created. The farm can be broken down to show all the different types of plants, where and how each plant is used, where the water comes from and various other elements. This will help to determine if pesticide is used, what other components will it affect. The components are listed below. From these components a schematic like the one if Figure 5.2 can be made for the hotel and then for the farm, that will help better illustrate how everything is connected.


 * Components**
 * Farm
 * Chicken Coop
 * Pig Farm
 * Cow Area
 * Composting Area
 * Turbines
 * Bio-Digesters - methane gas
 * River/Stream
 * Wells
 * Rainfall
 * Waste - Human and Animal
 * Barn - Horses
 * Fish Pond
 * Rooms
 * Main Building

Once Everything is listed and drawn in a schematic it should be much easier to make a more informed decision about how to proceed with killing bugs and insects to best protect what is important and to eliminate future problems that would normally go undetected in a normal problem solving approach.

5.4 Conclusion
Context Sensitive Design and Systems Thinking are both very similar concepts that require people to think outside the traditional way of thinking to get a broader view of the situation. By hopefully implementing these practices future problems will be prevented and life's saved because of these approach's to problem solving. Both are unique in their own way but what brings them together is they look at a problem from all different viewpoints and perspectives to fully grasp all that it entails and hopefully come up with a solution that not only solves the problem at hand but that also doesn't negatively affect things that are closely associated with it. '