Systems Engineering for Sustainable Development Goals

The recent pandemic has united the world in an unprecedented solidarity and appreciation for the unknown and the unseen. The variety of governmental and individual responses is evidence of our global lack of preparedness for such situations. A renewed appreciation for the importance of holistic and systemic thinking permeates both industry and academia. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) contain thematic areas that are relevant for reflection as the countries regroup, repair, and move forward.

Systems engineering is a discipline appropriate beyond its initial benefits, creating complex technological systems. Domains such as healthcare, transportation, natural resource management, social economics, and governance recognize the value of applying system thinking and systems engineering practices to finding solutions that go beyond band-aid symptomatic issues to address root cause fixes.

This Special Issue of Sustainability profiles researchers and practitioners, using systems engineering approaches to share their practices and findings as they address SDG thematic areas. They explore the ways in which systems methods help to mitigate and resolve socio-economic and natural environmental challenges, such as engineering personalized education, access to clean water, maintaining and improving urban infrastructure, and applying systems engineering to help shape resilient and trustworthy policies related to these and similar challenges. This issue highlights the most promising and innovative techniques for working toward and achieving the UN SDG.