Wicked problems have a mix of human and technical issues tangled together, and if you try to tackle any one aspect on its own you may actually make the situation worse. But, says Prof. Susan Krumdieck of Heriot-Watt University, some approaches have started to develop. This morning she welcomes you round a table to look at a big problem for Orkney today – how to balance tourism with preserving cultural and natural heritage. “We won’t solve the wicked problem,” she says, “but we will see it in a new way that doesn’t look so wicked.”

The story of Hild, the king’s daughter abducted to Orkney, was long known in Hoy. The Birsay minister Rev. George Low heard it in Foula in 1774 and wrote it down phonetically. Shetland musician Barry Nisbet has now reconstructed the ballad and translated it into the Shaetlan of today – with a ring-dance as well.

How can we improve transport connections to link remote communities together directly, rather than route them through distant centres? That, says Prof. Aseem Kinra, is a key challenge for Logistics, the art and science of moving things: to seek ways to improve connectivity and community cohesion, and reduce energy costs and carbon emissions. PhD researcher Maddie Dowek applies the approach, towards more localised food systems and supply chains.

The story of two men who travelled to Orkney and Shetland to study plants more than two centuries ago – and an opportunity to create new types of botanical records through photographs, drawings, collage and stories. Rebecca Cornwell brings you a selection of their manuscripts and travel journals and asks you to create your own record of a plant growing in the wild, with images and locations and local names. In this way, she says, we see how what is written about plants helps us care for them.