In search of sustainable development of La Libertad Region, Peru: A system dynamics integration of ecological, economic and social issues

The goal of this chapter is to build up a simulation model for the sustainable development of La Libertad Region in Peru, considering System Dynamics (SD) as a methodology of study. The model allows simulate diverse strategies to get economic, environmental and social results for this Peruvian region, expressing those results in a series of quantitative and qualitative indicators, looking for a sustainable development of it along to a medium/large time horizon, which can be directly controlled by the users of the model developed, through levers or management inputs, that can be specified in:1) Public Investment; 2) Tax rates for families and businesses; 3) Transfers/Subsidies to families; 4) Subsidies to enterprises by economic sectors; and 5) Land use policies; allowing to make strategic decisions within certain conditions, which are not controlled by the user but need to be considered in different simulated scenarios. Once the manageable levers and the external conditions have been fixed a particular scenario is arranged. In this chapter only the Base scenario and a HDI maximization scenario are compared. The paper starts with an introduction where the stakeholders concerned with the sustainable of La Libertad region are introduced on and some qualitative and quantitative information on La Libertad Region is shown. Afterwards the applied methodology, based on a system dynamics approach is presented, describing the model and sub-models built for the study. The model allows test diverse scenarios to support Peruvian Government investment policies for sustainable development of La Libertad Region.