I participated in an international team for Map the System Canada 2022. My team researched the sand crisis, focusing specifically on the mining of riverine and floodplain sand in India. Throughout the competition I attended classes hosted by Humber University in Canada. I learnt about systems research, systems mapping, and how to
identify points where intervention will be most effective.
I was our team leader which meant I was in charge of delegation and project management. As this was an international team we were working across different time zones, so organising meetings that worked for everyone and staying on top of communication was critical.
The project included doing academic research, systems mapping and analysis, writing an academic report and presenting our project to a panel of judges for each round we progressed through.
My team won the Humber College round progressing to the Canadian semi-finals and then finals where we placed in the top 6 and won people’s choice.
During our research we mapped out the system in the form of a causal map. This helped to identify reinforcing feedback loops keeping the system in place. We also used the iceberg model to map the different levels of causes and effects. Once we had reserched the cause and effects we moved on to looking at what solutions are already being implemented and what effects these have had so far. We were then able to identify the gaps in the solutions landscape and suggest possible actions that would have the most beneficial impact to the system.
