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Abstract:
This report provides results from a component of research completed under the Desert Knowledge CRC Core Project 5, ‘Desert Services that Work: Demand-responsive services to desert settlements’. The research examined service provision as a complex system and had a focus on the housing/health interface. Despite the volume of debate and commentary on services to remote settlements undertaken over the last 25 years, the modelling of service systems remains a largely neglected area. This report details an approach which attempts to capture the complexity of the system and also to provide a platform to allow users to interactively adjust system parameters and review potential outcomes of the actions. The model used an agent-based modelling (ABM) approach, which is a complex system modelling technique. Through this approach we can create an environment to explore and perhaps understand the system better. The model created could allow for alternative strategies to be tested, with potential deficiencies to be identified in a dynamic simulation environment. It provides a platform that can provide insights to the service delivery process, allow bottlenecks to be identified, and examine the trade-offs that may be made to achieve desired outcomes. It could also test potential outcomes from a range of technical and governance solution options. This report provides a discussion of the software-based model that has been developed as part of this project. It also provides, for insight to aid modelling the system, information about a range of services and delivery methods available to remote desert settlements. This study provides an analysis of the policy environment and governance structures, some analysis of the funding for specific programs, and an assessment of the performance and evaluation process, again as input data for the modelling. It also provides a description of some services, service delivery models and a typology of service delivery models.
