we live in a very literal world and we communicate with each other in
lots of different ways most of our communication uses either written ideas
or the spoken word these are the most common ways that we communicate but
they're certainly not the only ones drawing diagrams is a very different
form of communication diagrams have a very long history they allow us to think
in new ways and encourage us to approach problems differently even without
practice diagrams can be used to talk about complicated ideas and situations
diagrams can be used to communicate ideas but they're also useful for
exploring areas we would not normally be able to think about
maybe it's because they're different or maybe it's because we do different
things with them but diagrams certainly help us to understand things in
fascinating new ways
the world is a very big place the Mediterranean is a very complex and
fascinating part of that world every year from now until 2025 there'll be a
1.4 percent increase in population in the region the population in the north
is projected to grow to 68 million in the south to 108 million urbanisation is
accelerating in the region 200 kilometers a year are being built under
such pressure the people of the Mediterranean have choices to make they
need to figure out what's going on I've been working in the region on a number
of projects all to do with sustainability in this exercise I'm
using real data from an island in the north of the Mediterranean people there
drew me a rich picture I've used this rich picture and reworked it with four
diagram types to explore what is most important for them
in this picture the main point is the question mark in the center what an
earth am I trying to find out here's a farmer and the farmer is thinking about
fertile fields wind turbines things that work good dry stone wall around his farm
to stop erosion what see is a reality the reality is broken walls dry ground
terrible climate the farmer thinks he needs investment so we draw this banker
this is a banker and he's holding up money and this is what the farmer needs
this investment of euro so that he can plow this back into his farm build his
turbine irrigate his fields improve the dry stone walls hey presto
production has been poor in recent years and you can see the time line at the top
there showing rest in peace as the crops diminish the tourists keep on coming
they're playing in the sea they're having fun they're enjoying themselves
but there are issues about pollutants in the sea and issues also that the Sun
gets a bit too bright and the wind gets a bit too strong and these climatic
changes are occurring all the time the people are working with really kept
coming back to these dry stone walls this issue of the fertility of the grat
land and their own inability to learn the lessons needed to make this work
with education with investment they can increase production and they can make
the agricultural sector thrive the final puzzle of the rich picture is a picture
of a domestic dwelling with an outpouring of domestic water which is
polluting the sea this is an issue the issue of sea hygiene water hygiene most
generally the rich picture is all about community and all about the rural
community and all about how that rural community is getting on with its life
here is another example of a rich picture rich bitches are a mix of
drawing pictures symbols and text representing a situation from the point
of view of the person or persons drawing them the rich picture here is about a
flood management i drew this picture 15 minutes before the start of a conference
on flooding where I was going to use rich picturing as a technique in my talk
starting the top right you can see residential housing was solar panels and
roofs under a major rainstorm behind there is a power station heating up the
atmosphere increase over runoff into the drain systems into the river has
implications for groundwater levels as less rain is available to soak into
soils but this could equally rise under intense storm situations leading to
surface flooding to the middle top of the picture you can also see the role of
London as a major finance center which exists as an island but is also home to
laws insurance a link to increase costs of changing weather patterns and flood
insurance for the top left decision-making bodies such as local
authorities are under pressure for meeting targets to approve development
perhaps leading to surface flooding in the center-left agricultural inputs into
river systems are shown by the arrow from the fields going into the river and
on the far right hand side you can see a person on their computer trying to make
sense of the complexity of the floods is this a one in twenty five year flood or
one and two hundred and fifty or one and one thousand year flood overall the rich
picture is quite structured perhaps more than I would like it to be it's almost
like looking at a landscape with buildings farmland in a river running
through it however I think the rich picture shows the different types of
factors relating to flooding and if I was to rework this I think I would have
lights have made the flooding aspects more obvious by surrounding some
buildings with floodwaters and perhaps showing flood defences being built I
might also add rainfall records and of course the importance of media
in this spray diagram I'm trying to some of that richness on the rich
picture but maybe stripes start to structure it a little bit local
community is the center and farming is the center of that farming has been
impoverished by years of underinvestment and because of that impoverishment
because that the farming production is reduced and the attractiveness of
farming to the young community is also much reduced lack of investment reduced
fertility of the soil soil erosion and reduced crop yield are all major issues
which afflict this farming community the community itself knows that it's capable
of much more but there's a great need for investment and inputs which is going
to make that community work well so the second major arm of the spra diagram is
the investment arm farming needs investment but there are some questions
about the investment criteria and policy how do farmers get hold of the money to
invest in their land okay tourism is fine for now and that's
another major arm coming from Osprey diagram but what about the future and
it's a worry that maybe the stuff that's happening to the farming community might
go more widely in future fishing there's a reduced catch and maybe there's also a
link here to waste and waste production from domestic and industrial sites the
major components then of the spray diagram farming tourism fishing waste
they have capable of much more they need more inputs but the investment
policy is questionable maybe incomprehensible maybe just hidden
and that has implications for the future
here's another example of a diagram spray diagram show connections
between related elements associated with a particular idea or issue
this is a spray diagram of some environmental concerns relating to
mobile phones around the central topic of mobile phones you can see six main
themes manufacturing packaging transport use infrastructure and end-of-life
following the manufacturing theme outwards we can see some aspects
relating to materials used in mobile phones metal mining being important
energy used and location manufacturing components may have come from different
places and many different companies if we follow the infrastructure theme you
can see a range of possible concerns such as the data and computing systems
which drive the phone networks these have significant energy materials and
transport implications the diagram interprets environment fairly loosely
and makes links to human health and also social considerations overall the number
of items in the diagram suggests there are quite a number of concerns relating
to mobile phones perhaps far more than we might think about if we just focused
on use
from the systems that I can see there are a few standout points so I need to
focus on clearly my main focuses the local community and within that local
community again the game again farming is critically important fishing is
also important and the production system arising from both of these is key
investment let's go again arisen again the game as I've talked to people as
I've worked my way through the case study and tourism was also important
whether as a major impact erosion is an output against beyond the local
communities capacity so it's outside their system as is finance and banking
which are their great forces which drive that system they sit in the environment
of the system but they're very important drivers of the system
Here is another example of a systems map a systems map is a snapshot of a situation at a moment
in time from the perspective of the person drawing it
this systems map is based on research into UK River catchments it shows the
elements that might influence how a water catchment is managed and functions
some of these elements are grouped together within seven subsystems for
example the farming subsystem includes the farmer advisors traditions of
farming family security economic returns together these shape the kind of farming
that is done in a catchment if the river managing subsystem includes elements
such as water companies residents volunteers non-governmental
organizations I drew this map several times before
settling on the themes in the subsystems I'm still not entirely happy with it
though as I think that the residence element is not sufficiently developed
and seems to be more an afterthought my next iteration would be to explore more
fully how residents shape the way catchments are managed and function
Working from the basis of the systems map I can now start to think about where
are the major influences within that map investment is where I start investment
just about effects everything within my local community context farming
production fishing and tourism and of course the external force there is
banking weather has a huge impact too so there's weather affecting the community
fishing farming erosion but again this link now between farming and erosion
which I don't think was so clear to me before but really has gained clarity now
weather and finance and banking these are the great forces I'm up against I
think as I start to consider the complexities of this context
here is another example of an influence diagram an influence diagram represents
the main structural features of a situation and the important influences
that exist between them the arrow shows the capacity to influence but not a
sequence of influences unlike a multiple cause diagram the influence diagram
shown here is about the influences on food waste you can see that the large
portion size is a key influence on food waste this arises from plentiful fast
food cheap food mass manufacturing and restaurant practices in the lower left
of the diagram you can also see that poor cooking skills can influence large
portions and also directly lead to food waste poor skills is influenced by
variable education training family apprenticeship and cooking in the media
perhaps by over emphasizing the importance of gourmet type food
experiences rather than developing basic skills other factors influencing food
waste include food dislikes used by dates and so on
I like this diagram because it conveys all in one go the diverse influences
upon food waste some of these could require further investigation for
example what influences restaurant practices which lead to large portion
sizes
so far I've gained a sense of a lot of complexity going on and now I want to
think about the causality behind that complexity I'm starting off with
investment as being my key element the investment priorities which if you like
fire up all the systems that I've been looking at there's a lack of investment
so the priorities have led to some kind of lack of investment and that has
impacted and has a direct causality upon farming which is in decline the
declining farming is also leading to a reduction in farming practice and again
the gain in the context people talk to me about dry stone walls so this is a
big emblem of this decline the dry stone walls tear them away you increase
erosion and you can see the first of the causal cycles they're working its way on
the left-hand side of the diagram also coming out of farming decline we have
reduced production and that's very much related to reduced investment and that
overall lack of investment so again we have another causal cycle to negative
causal cycles leading to farming decline that is becoming quite clear the reduced
production also it means a decline in the rural landscape and maybe that has
impacts for the future on tourism we don't know about that but as the rural
environment becomes less attractive maybe tourism also reduces climates a
major cause or force here it affects whether that impacts on erosion it also
means there are more storms and we know that those storms have impacts on both
the fishing production and also on tourism so climate and investment really
impact upon the present economic structure of the island but also its
long-term sustainability you can see I've underlined at the end there reduced
production as being my main theme
here is another example of a multiple cause diagram a multiple cause diagram
is used to explore wine event or change occurs
unlike influence diagrams multiple cause diagrams can be read sequentially
backwards or forwards this multiple cause diagram is about the decision to
invest and domestic photovoltaic cells shown here as PVC this is the event or
change we're trying to explain and so we can read backwards from this two major
causes lead to this decision on the one hand there is consideration of other
investments that a person could make for example bank accounts and on the other
interest in investing in PVC these two primary causes can be seen to arise from
a series of other causes these are on the outer ring of the diagram the
increase in cost of power reduced income recession personal frustration and the
ability to do something about the global climate situation these variously lead
to effects of rising bills and a personal need for this person to be
green add to the mix one further cause of a
25-year guarantee of income from PVC and the map is complete if you work from the
outer and primary causes you end up with a series or set of multiple causes for
the final event conversely if you work back from the final event you can see
how the causes acted upon each other