This paper points to the need for undertaking field-based, innovative, intellectual ventures to explore a yet-missing scientific domain of “Implementation Science”. A Vitae System Perspective is proposed to show that seemingly different research arenas are interpreted to share common concerns, hotspots and fundamental issues such as how to manage and realize “more sustainable” society (that is, sustainable management), how to develop a better methodological leverage toward it and what kind of new scientific framework should be further explored. Illustrations are made to link together three seemingly different research frontiers. i.e.,IDRiM (Integrated Disaster Risk Management), CRREM (Conflict Resolution in Resources and Environment Management), and Kasology (sustainable rural development). Some ongoing scientific challenges by the author and others are introduced and discussed. By referring to interpretively relevant ideas, thoughts and research works, further allied endeavors to enhance “Implementation Science” for sustainable society are called for.

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Systems methodologies constitute an implementation science to address complex environmental problems from a Vitae Systems of Systems perspective. The aim of Implementation Science is to obtain sustainable, fair and responsible solutions that satisfy as much as possible the value systems of stakeholders while upholding the Vitae principles of survivability, viability and conviviality. To represent the environmental and other societal problems under investigation, the insightful concept of a system of systems is adopted. For example, the Vitae viewpoint on solutions to global warming problems at the regional, national or international level is captured in the interactions of societal systems, such as industrial and service systems, with atmospheric, oceanic and land systems. To tackle the strategic aspects of complex systems of systems problems, there is a rich variety of systems engineering decision tools that can handle multiple stakeholders with multiple objectives; these tools are explained and compared according to their inherent capabilities.
To demonstrate how systems tools can implement a Vitae Systems of Systems philosophy, three different techniques are applied to complex large-scale environmental and water resources management problems. The Graph Model for Conflict Resolution is used to address the large-scale environmental problem that arose over a massive irrigation project proposed for the US state of North Dakota - the infamous Garrison Diversion Unit. Next, a large-scale optimization model, integrating concepts from hydrology, economics and cooperative game theory, is employed to identify fair and feasible allocations of water resources among users in the South Saskatchewan River Basin located in southern Alberta, Canada. Finally, Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis techniques are used to assess different strategies to satisfy future water demand from multiple stakeholders within the Regional Municipality of Waterloo situated in southern Ontario, Canada.

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  By reviewing the disaster reduction implementation science system, the necessity of developing disaster risk science is discussed and its preliminary framework is proposed in this paper. At the third IIASA-DPRI Forum on Integrated Disaster Risk Management, Okada (2003) presented the disaster reduction implementation science system, that is, the Networking of Vitae System, and expatiated on the structure, function, and system dynamic issues of integrated risk management. Influenced by the Vitae System of integrated risk management and based on the disaster system framework proposed by Shi in 1991, the authors examine the three basic components of disaster risk science, that is, disaster science, emergency technology, and risk management. Building upon these discussions, the structure, function, and dynamic system of integrated risk management are further explored, with the understanding that the core of integrated risk management is to optimize development and disaster reduction, to combine governmental and non-governmental disaster reduction actions, to integrate structural and non-structural countermeasures, and finally to form the regional integrated disaster reduction paradigm.

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This paper investigated two roles of public reviews in disaster risk management: 1) providing information to a policy maker about the desirability of a disaster risk management plan and 2) promoting stakeholders' trust in policy maker's decision. Our analysis was conducted by formulating two linked communication games, which described, respectively, information transmission from public reviewers to a policy maker and trust formation between the policy maker and an individual. It was shown that there exists an externality between the two games, and the policy maker accordingly faces a trade-off between the two roles of public reviews. Due to this trade-off, trust formation between the policy maker and the individual might be prevented. Finally, alternative institutional design for realizing trust formation between the policy maker and the individual through public reviews was discussed. It was pointed out that a communication protocol that disciplines the way in which reviewers express their opinions has to be designed in order to realize the two roles of public reviews.

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