Increasing pressures resulting from global environmental and climate change urge urban settlements in OECD countries to adapt to these challenges. In this context, the management of urban infrastructure takes on an important role. Urban infrastructures are complex socio-technical systems that provide services of general interest to the public society. Due to path-dependencies, the implementation of problem-solving approaches turn out to be difficult in practice as the existing system configurations are rigid to change. In this context, we identify the logic of business models as a moderator between strategy and practical implementation on firm level. However, we identify a gap of such a moderator on the level of complex socio-technical systems.

Within SYSTRA, we are developing a tool that represents the relevant elements for (organizational) innovations within the socio-technical system in a formal and explicit way: the Innovation System Canvas (ISC). Based on our findings, we conclude that the ISC can help to structure the translation of problem-solving approaches into practical implementation for the purpose of climate change adaption of urban infrastructure management.