Integrated Model for Sustainable Development (IMSD): Impact of Technology Integration
Authors: Hasan Ahmed 
Published: June 2014

There is a need worldwide to diversify the energy resources and rely on unconventional energy sources to prolong the oil reserves, attract hi-tech manufacturers, support knowledge based economy, and reduce carbon foot print. The current state of knowledge is confined in isolated research and development related to various renewable energy technologies such as passive energy, wind, Solar, biofuels, hydrothermal, and energy conservations. However, there are limited attempts, to integrate many of the aforementioned technologies in one place and monitor the impact of the integration on their efficiency and feasibility; as well as quantify the impact of other technologies related to energy and water conservation. The Integrated Model for Sustainable Development (IMSD) is a conceptual model that provides a unique conceptualization approach to study the impact of integrating individual technologies on a holistic energy and water systems. Additionally, blooming population increase worldwide put lots of strain on already scarce water resources. Almost 25% of energy produced is used for water extraction, treatment and delivery. Therefore, it is important for the 21 century technologies to address the energy-water-environment nexus, which result in better management of resources while maintaining clean environment for future generations. The IMSD is an innovative approach that provides a comprehensive platform that combines technology development, economics, environmental impact assessment, decision support and human capacity development in one platform.

The IMSD is an integrated field scale testing platform that will likely improve the usefulness of models by including a probabilistic risk assessment approach that utilizes rigorous methodologies for dealing with missing and uncertain information; improved methods for interpretation of multivariate data sets and for multi-objective decision making involving trade-offs among conflicting goals; and novel modeling methods as alternatives to traditional mathematical models. Development of complex conceptual models, data collection and mathematical modeling are essential components of the IMSD.

The IMSD is designed to quantify the impact of passive energy buildings and energy conservation technologies on enabling renewable energy technologies and reduction of carbon foot print using a holistic SD approach. The IMSD incorporates the Process Network Synthesis (PNS) to find an optimal technology pathway out of a complex technology network; a novel Graphical User Interface (GUI) to simulate the impacts of proposed management options; and a separate module for the Sustainable Process Index (SPI) to evaluate the economical and environmental feasibility of the designed integrated system.

The IMSD is designed to address indirect problems related to energy production such as water management practices for oil operations, while mitigating the environmental impacts of waste water disposal processes and methods. The IMSD would support the promotion of emerging and innovative technologies by proving their technical and economic feasibility within a holistic SD system. Therefore, the IMSD directly support the growth of green energy and knowledge-based economy.