Abstract

Nature-based systems are efficiently designed and are able to respond to many system requirements such as scalability, adaptability, self-organization, resilience, robustness, durability, reliability, self-monitoring, self-repair, and many others. Using nature's examples as guidepost, there is a unique platform for developing more environmentally sustainable products and systems. This position paper makes a case for an interdisciplinary approach to sustainable design and development. This paper suggests that the design should not only mimic natural behaviours but should benefit from natural phenomenon (e.g, wind turbines). The paper proposes a conceptual modeling system framework, whereby physical products and systems are designed and modeled with the added benefit of how similar systems work in nature. Developing such a system in nontrivial and requires an interdisciplinary approach. To realize this system will require a merging of analytical and computational models of nature systems and human-made systems into a single information system. In this position paper, we discuss the framework at a birds-eye view.