Farming procedures have intensified to the point where they significantly impact on the environment, the social fabric of the communities involved and the political and financial stability of regions. Traditional design procedures do not take the recursive and adaptive nature of these systems fully into account. The study starts from the premise that the feedback loop and recursive causal nature inherent to agri-eco-socio-technical systems make them inherently wicked. The design of a low carbon footprint farm takes this into account and uses a transdisciplinary approach to consider the solutions from a broad stakeholder group, using model based design approaches for the co-creation of solutions. The reason for this is that models can capture and clarify common understanding; they can be used to effectively document and explain the recursive nature of the process being followed (as each model must stand alone as an artifact during each structure-analyze-synthesize effort). As the models increase in complexity and domain reach, it is possible to start with what-if analysis to support investment and technical decision making.
An initial solution design is presented that shows how the problem was structured and what factors were considered for a model based approach.