it is a tenet of Systems Science that information and Knowledge of systems are needed if we want to stay viable in the context of various social, technical and environmental systems influencing us. And also if we want to design interventions and artefacts to influence the behavior, results and consequences of systems.
Our societies and the institutions that we create tend to become more diverse as more and more new combinations of knowledge, experience and technology become possible. We have more different possible desired states to choose from. And we are confronted with more changes in the systems that surround and affect us. We call these increased number of states proliferating variety, which is a measure complexity.
Validated knowledge, enhanced access to knowledge, and new ways to share and innovate knowledge provide opportunities for innovation and enhance our capabilities to anticipate, design and steer complex systems.
A focused and conscious approach to identify, capture, store, retrieve, share and produce new knowledge is an essential tool to absorb our systems' variety and complexity, make them work more for us, and curb them working against us. In other words, better knowledge and better knowledge processes are essential to Sustainable Development.
I share my personal knowledge on Systems, Sustainability and Knowledge in my external brain The Sustainability Web 
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