Advances in Computing and Technology The School of Computing, Information Technology and Engineering, 6 th Annual Conference 2011 216 REFLECTIONS ON THE NEED FOR AN IMPROVED QUANTITATIVE MODELING APPROACH Amin Hosseinian Far, Hamid Jahankhani, Elias Pimenidis, and D.C. Wijeyesekera School of Computing, IT and Engineering University of East London {Amin, Hamid.Jahankhani, E.Pimenidis, Chitral}@uel.ac.uk Abstract. There are common elements in different sustainability models regardless of their application that can be applied to almost any system. Some of the existing models try to establish a quantitative approach to assess sustainability, some reflect the changes of the target systems through longitudinal evaluations on case studies and many of the models illustrate the concept using a descriptive breakdown. This paper tries to find the common elements used in the important existing sustainability models by comparing the models using a comparison framework. These elements will be later become the components of a system model. This system model is represented using Complex Adaptive Systems and Systems‟ theories and also quantitative modelling techniques in order to eliminate some of the dilemmas in the existing sustainability modelling. 1. Introduction This paper evaluates existing sustainability models in terms of their usefulness and proposes a new systems model for sustainability research. Although various models have been theorized around different case studies and applications, some offer practical benefits worth of further examination. In order to evaluate the models and to critically compare them, a comparison framework has been set. The framework regards the key common elements within the majority of the models and evaluates them using the comparison criteria. It also summarizes the key knowledge in the field. This provides a better understanding of the research context and the gaps within the existing models. For this reason, the main data collection method is narrative extraction, the methodology is deductive, and the research design base is theoretical. 1.1 The Framework According to the Oxford Dictionary (2010), a framework is a “basic structure underlying a system, concept, or text. This research comparison framework is constructed based on different perspectives perceived from a sustainability model. 1.2 Investigating sustainability model perspectives A sustainability model can be analyzed based on the following facets: 1. Components 2. Modelling Approach 3. Applications 4. Design Base 5. Concept Clarity Although many comparison frameworks can be built from different perspectives, however the stated facets are sufficient for this piece of research in order to identify the main common components needed for our new extensive model. This research tries to