Muscle Quality and Functional and Conventional Ratios of Trunk Strength in Young Healthy

This approach provides a visual means to represent the future plan of action in a chosen field of study. As stated earlier, this methodology is relatively new to the transportation sector and the socio-technical effects of the system, integrated with sustainable development policies have been seldom considered. While numerous organizations and agencies are trying to integrate sustainability into their organizational functioning and culture, few have been successful in practically implementing it. This can be attributed to the decision making process, where the organization focuses on easy-to-measure goals and impacts (Litman & Burwell, 2006), while ignoring difficult to easy-to-measure social impacts and public acceptance (Deakin, 2003). While a standard set of metrics and indicators for evaluating sustainability of a system can be useful, well-articulated processes with long-term vision can help achieve the progress towards sustainable outcomes. It is also essential to note that like any other developmental effort, sustainable development can change over time. Thus, in an effort to move towards sustainable systems, it is necessary to have flexible decision making tools and frameworks, which have the potential to evaluate relationships and interactions between various elements of the system. Such frameworks should not only study the technical aspects of a system, but also consider the impact of human elements on the functioning of the system. The framework developed in this research illustrates the use of sustainable development

principles in transportation infrastructure decision-making by using socio-technical roadmapping as a strategic tool.

A critical first step in designing future scenarios is to establish a time period for the study. In transportation infrastructure development, the time period is generally longer (generally 20 to 30 years) when compared to technology development in industries, which tend to have a shorter life span (three to five years). When developing future scenarios for engineering systems, logical timelines must be adopted based on the lifecycle of the product or services under study, and this can be established while conducting the feasibility analysis of the project. The overall framework comprises of four steps: (1) system analysis, (2) sustainability analysis, (3) uncertainty analysis, and (4) roadmapping. Figure 1 presents the framework for socio-technical roadmapping.

Figure 1. Overall framework of socio-technical roadmapping

In the first step, vision, goals, and objectives of the project or the field of study are established. These must be consistent and align well with the organizational strategy or policies. The existing system characteristics and conditions are then analyzed from a

Sy st em Anal ysis

Impact

Uncertai nty Anal ysis

socio-technical viewpoint, with the efficient functioning of the system determined by relationships and interactions between various technical and non-technical elements.

Numerous studies exist in the literature, which model complex engineering systems and infrastructures as socio-technical systems (for e.g., Ottens, Franssen, Kroes, & van de Poel, 2006; Trist & Emery, 2006; Tuominen & Ahlqvist, 2010). These methodologies provide a clear understanding as to how technical and non-technical elements of an engineering system interact and the influence of their relationships on the system performance. Performance measures are then established to determine the functioning of the system and will serve as a tool to gauge the progress over time.

The second step involves analyzing the project typology from a sustainability and sustainable development perspective. Project typology defines a project into one of several major classifications of projects. For methods and examples of analyzing project typology from a sustainable perspective see Rangarajan, Long, Ziemer, and Lewis (2012). It is essential to note that, the sustainable development principles and policies cannot be generalized, and they need to be tailored to specific regional or project environment. Based on the project typology, interactions between various elements can be established from a sustainability viewpoint and the level of uncertainties or risks associated with these interactions can be determined. A thematic map is then developed to study the effect of stakeholder interactions, their influence, and their behavior/actions on the decision making process. The thematic behavior/actions maps will help the experts and decision makers identify and analyze the course of action a stakeholder would take, its influence on the decision, and the overall system performance. These socio-technical

gaps and uncertainties form the factors of the roadmaps, which will be analyzed to determine the possible impact they might have on the system in the future.

The third step of the framework involves analysis of system uncertainties and risks. This involves identifying various factors that could impact the functioning of the system. Examples on system uncertainties and risk analysis can be found in Newman (2005), Rangarajan, Long, Tobias, and Keister (2012), Litman, (2006). While sustainability analysis helps decision makers identify the gaps and risks that are preventing the system from achieving stability and sustainability, a detailed analysis of these socio-technical uncertainties is critical to identify policy or systemic changes to mitigate the impact of these risks on socio-technical elements and their functioning in the system.

Based on the results and findings, roadmaps are developed as part of the final step of the framework. It must be noted that the roadmaps are very specific to the project or the area of study, and they must align with the strategic vision and goals of the organization. The uncertainties and gaps are identified from socio-technical and sustainability analyses, and are used as factors in the roadmapping process. The roadmaps produced as part of this framework are a visual representation of these socio-technical uncertainties and the measures developed to attain a predetermined end point of a certain project. The roadmaps identify cross-functional process improvements that play a major part in attaining the end result.

In the following section, the socio-technical roadmapping framework is applied and validated using the rail infrastructure development effort in Missouri. The study emphasizes on the infrastructure development effort and identifies meaningful

sustainable alternatives and policies, and their relationship with the non-technical elements and evolving stakeholders. Further, the framework can be used as a strategic tool to gain better understanding of the transportation system as a socio-technical engineering system, and help decision makers identify uncertainties and risks that could potentially impact the sustainability of the system.