Question: What is meant by a "system curve" that is used to determine the operating point of a pump. I know what a "pump curve" is, but I often hear about a "system curve" being generated so that the pump operating point can be determined by where the pump curve and system curve intersect.

Answer: 
Usually a pressure / flow characteristic curve for a given power.

They are usually provided by the manufacturer.

Unless you do an engineering degree where you get to measure the flow rate, pressure, power, calculate the efficiency etc and then have to plot all the dimensionless groups etc to show what is happening.
System curve is simply a plot of the required head against change in system flow rate, as the required head (mainly major and minor losses) increases with the increase in flow rate.

On the other hand, for a pump curve, you can see that the available head by the pump decreases with the increase in flow rate. So, if you put the two curves on a single plot (and if the pump is properly selected), you will have an intersection point between the two curves, and that's your operating point.

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5MzL7.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5MzL7.png)