Showing papers on "Sustainability published in 1996"

Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth

Abstract: Review: Our Ecological Footprint: reducing human impact on the Earth. By Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees Reviewed by Gene Bazan Center for Sustainability, Pennsylvania State University Wackernagel, Mathis and William Rees. Our Ecological Footprint: reducing human impact on the Earth. Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1996. 160 pp. US $14.94 paper ISBN: 0-86571-312-X. Partially recycled, acid-free paper using soy-based ink. If the earth's inhabitants were to live at the standard of the U.S., we would require three planet Earths to support us. Many of us have heard or read something like this before. Our Ecological Footprint provides a graphically compelling and quantitatively rigorous way for us to engage in the worldwide sustainability debate: Ecological Footprint analysis. Through this analysis we can determine the consequences of our behavior, and proposed solutions, at any level: individual, household, community, nation, or world. Ecological Footprint analysis measures the aggregate land area required for a given population to exist in a sustainable manner. Wackernagel and Rees note that at 11 acres per person, the U.S. has the highest per capita footprint and suggest that this number should be closer to 6 acres per person. Further, the U.S. faces an 80% ecological deficit, which means we are borrowing from our grandchildren's legacy, and expropriating land from elsewhere in the world. By contrast, each European requires around 5 acres; however, Europeans face higher ecological deficits because they have smaller land areas. Unlike other approaches, which focus on the depletion of non-renewables such as fossil fuel and minerals, Ecological Footprint analysis asserts that the road to sustainability must be paved with sustainable practices. Thus, our use of fossil fuel must have as a compensatory sink the acres of woodlot required to sequester the carbon from our combustion of fossil fuel (in our cars, home heating, etc.) or, alternatively, the acres of fields required to grow biofuel. For example, in comparing our daily commute by car, bus or bicycle, and considering all land requirements (e.g., manufacturing land to produce

Productivity and sustainability influenced by biodiversity in grassland ecosystems

Abstract: THE functioning and sustainability of ecosystems may depend on their biological diversity1–8. Elton's9 hypothesis that more diverse ecosystems are more stable has received much attention1,3,6,7,10–14, but Darwin's proposal6,15 that more diverse plant communities are more productive, and the related conjectures4,5,16,17 that they have lower nutrient losses and more sustainable soils, are less well studied4–6,8,17,18. Here we use a well-replicated field experiment, in which species diversity was directly controlled, to show that ecosystem productivity in 147 grassland plots increased significantly with plant biodiversity. Moreover, the main limiting nutrient, soil mineral nitrogen, was utilized more completely when there was a greater diversity of species, leading to lower leaching loss of nitrogen from these ecosystems. Similarly, in nearby native grassland, plant productivity and soil nitrogen utilization increased with increasing plant species richness. This supports the diversity–productivity and diversity–sustainability hypotheses. Our results demonstrate that the loss of species threatens ecosystem functioning and sustainability.

The Report of the Ecological Society of America Committee on the Scientific Basis for Ecosystem Management

Abstract: Ecosystem management is management driven by explicit goals, executed by policies, protocols, and practices, and made adaptable by monitoring and research based on our best understanding of the ecological interactions and processes necessary to sustain ecosystem composition, structure, and function. In recent years, sustainability has become an explicitly stated, even legislatively mandated, goal of natural resource management agencies. In practice, however, management approaches have often focused on maximizing short-term yield and economic gain rather than long-term sustainability. Several obstacles contribute to this disparity, including: (1) inadequate information on the biological diversity of environments; (2) widespread ignorance of the function and dynamics of ecosystems; (3) the openness and interconnectedness of ecosystems on scales that transcend management boundaries; (4) a prevailing public perception that the immediate economic and social value of supposedly renewable resources outweighs the risk of future ecosystem damage or the benefits of alternative management approaches. The goal of ecosystem management is to overcome these obstacles. Ecosystem management includes the following elements: (1) Sustainability. Ecosystem management does not focus primarily on deliverables" but rather regards intergenerational sustainability as a precondition. (2) Goals. Ecosystem management establishes measurable goals that specify future processes and outcomes necessary for sustainability. (3) Sound ecological models and understanding. Ecosystem management relies on research performed at all levels of ecological organization. (4) Complexity and connectedness. Ecosystem management recognizes that biological diversity and structural complexity strengthen ecosystems against disturbance and supply the genetic resources necessary to adapt to long-term change. (5) The dynamic character of ecosystems. Recognizing that change and evolution are inherent in ecosystem sustainability, ecosystem management avoids attempts to freeze" ecosystems in a particular state or configuration. (6) Context and scale. Ecosystem processes operate over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, and their behavior at any given location is greatly affected by surrounding systems. Thus, there is no single appropriate scale or time frame for management. (7) Humans as ecosystem components. Ecosystem management values the active role of humans in achieving sustainable management goals. (8) Adaptability and accountability. Ecosystem management acknowledges that current knowledge and paradigms of ecosystem function are provisional, incomplete, and subject to change. Management approaches must be viewed as hypotheses to be tested by research and monitoring programs. The following are fundamental scientific precepts for ecosystem management. (1) Spatial and temporal scale are critical. Ecosystem function includes inputs, outputs, cycling of materials and energy, and the interactions of organisms. Boundaries defined for the study or management of one process are often inappropriate for the study of others; thus, ecosystem management requires a broad view. (2) Ecosystem function depends on its structure, diversity, and integrity. Ecosystem management seeks to maintain biological diversity as a critical component in strengthening ecosystems against disturbance. Thus, management of biological diversity requires a broad perspective and recognition that the complexity and function of any particular location is influenced heavily by the surrounding system. (3) Ecosystems are dynamic in space and time. Ecosystem management is challenging in part because ecosystems are constantly changing. Over time scales of decades or centuries, many landscapes are altered by natural disturbances that lead to mosaics of successional patches of different ages. Such patch dynamics are critical to ecosystem structure and function. (4) Uncertainty, surprise, and limits to knowledge. Ecosystem management acknowledges that, given sufficient time and space, unlikely events are certain to occur. Adaptive management addresses this uncertainty by combining democratic principles, scientific analysis, education, and institutional learning to increase our understanding of ecosystem processes and the consequences of management interventions, and to improve the quality of data upon which decisions must be made. Ecosystem management requires application of ecological science to natural resource actions. Moving from concepts to practice is a daunting challenge and will require the following steps and actions. (1) Defining sustainable goals and objectives. Sustainable strategies for the provision of ecosystem goods and services cannot take as their starting points statements of need or want such as mandated timber supply, water demand, or arbitrarily set harvests of shrimp or fish. Rather, sustainability must be the primary objective, and levels of commodity and amenity provision must be adjusted to meet that goal. (2) Reconciling spatial scales. Implementation of ecosystem management would be greatly simplified if management jurisdictions were spatially congruent with the behavior of ecosystem processes. Given the variation in spatial domain among processes, one perfect fit for all processes is virtually impossible; rather, ecosystem management must seek consensus among the various stakeholders within each ecosystem. (3) Reconciling temporal scales. Whereas management agencies are often forced to make decisions on a fiscal-year basis, ecosystem management must deal with time scales that transcend human lifetimes. Ecosystem management requires long-term planning and commitment. (4) Making the system adaptable and accountable. Successful ecosystem management requires institutions that are adaptable to changes in ecosystem characteristics and in our knowledge base. Adaptive management by definition requires the scientist's ongoing interaction with managers and the public. Communication must flow in both directions, and scientists must be willing to prioritize their research with regard to critical management needs. Scientists have much to offer in the development of monitoring programs, particularly in creating sampling approaches, statistical analyses, and scientific models. As our knowledge base evolves, scientists must develop new mechanisms to communicate research and management results. More professionals with an understanding of scientific, management, and social issues, and the ability to communicate with scientists, managers, and the public are needed. Ecosystem management is not a rejection of an anthropocentric for a totally biocentric worldview. Rather it is management that acknowledges the importance of human needs while at the same time confronting the reality that the capacity of our world to meet those needs in perpetuity has limits and depends on the functioning of ecosystems.

Green Cities, Growing Cities, Just Cities?: Urban Planning and the Contradictions of Sustainable Development

Abstract: Nothing inherent in the discipline steers planners either toward environmental protection or toward economic development—or toward a third goal of planning: social equity. Instead, planners work within the tension generated among these three fundamental aims, which, collectively, I call the “planner's triangle,” with sustainable development located at its center. This center cannot be reached directly, but only approximately and indirectly, through a sustained period of confronting and resolving the triangle's conflicts. To do so, planners have to redefine sustainability, since its current formulation romanticizes our sustainable past and is too vaguely holistic. Planners would benefit both from integrating social theory with environmental thinking and from combining their substantive skills with techniques for community conflict resolution, to confront economic and environmental injustice.

Natural resource and environmental economics

Abstract: Natural Resources and Environmental Economics, provides comprehensive and contemporary analysis of the major areas of natural resource and environmental economics.

The Compact City : A Sustainable Urban Form?

Abstract: Part One: Compact city theory The compact city debate Claims and counter-claims addressing implications for environmental, economic and social sustainability Part Two: Environment and resources Research associated with environment, sustainability and urban form, including transport, energy, pollution and urban ecology Part Three: Economic and social issues Economic and market feasibility of the compact city Social acceptability Part Four: Measuring and monitoring Research on quantification Predictions of future development Impact assessment and quantification Urban capacity studies and urban modelling Part Five: Implementation Examples of achieving sustainable urban form and good practice - including policy and implementation, design and urban management Index

Environmental Sustainability: Universal and Non-Negotiable

Abstract: After deploring the mystification of the term sustainability and tendencies to conflate it with society's desiderata, we desegregate three types of sustainability: social, economic, and environmental. After clarifying these three linked and overlapping concepts, and construing them with sustainable development, we distinguish quantitative throughput growth from qualitative development, and mention intergenerational equity and scarcity of natural capital that together lead to the definition of environmental sustainability by the output/input rule, i.e., keep wastes within assimilative capacities; harvest within regenerative capacities of renewable resources; deplete non-renewables at the rate at which renewable substitutes are developed. After distinguishing development from sustainability and from growth, the paper describes the concept of natural capital and uses the concept to present four alternative definitions of environmental sustainability. Next, the paper presents criteria for analyzing environmental sustainability and uses the Ehrlich-Holdren framework in which Population," Pffluence, and Technology are examined separately. The paper then nuances the I = PAT identity and starts to disaggregate the components of sustainability into more dynamic formulations. The final section describes how one large development agency, the World Bank, is endeavoring to incorporate these new principles into its operations.

Driving Eco-Innovation: A Breakthrough Discipline for Innovation and Sustainability

Abstract: "If you miss this book you may miss the boat" - Ernst Ulrich von Weizs (TM)cker, President of Wuppertal Institute for Climate Environment & Energy This is a book about innovation. Innovation which is fuelled by ecological issues. Innovation which will enable you to save time, resources, money and improve your performance for new business development. It spells out the meaning of vital trends which will shake up your business over the coming decades. Driving Eco-Innovation provides an insight into why business is losing its innovation stamina. It gives you the nuts and bolts of the eco-innovation approach and enables you to carry out your own, hands-on experiments and, ultimately, provide products and services that are environmentally efficient and economically profitable. Authors : Claude Fussler is vice president of Environmental Health & Safety, New Business & Public Affairs, Dow Europe. In 1995 he receivedTomorrow Magazine's Environmental Leadership Award. Peter James is director of the Sustainable Business Centre. He is also an Associate of Ashridge Management College.

Tourism, Ecotourism, and Protected Areas: The State of Nature-Based Tourism Around the World and Guidelines for Its Development

Abstract: Derived from papers submitted at Parks Congress workshops, 1992. The aim is to show how tourism and protected areas can flourish alongside each other by guiding the development of tourism along lines which respect the limited capacity of many areas to absorb the pressure of visitors and their activities. The editor has drawn together a wealth of knowledge and experience and distilled it into essential guidance for protected areas planners, managers and tourists alike

Revisiting Carrying Capacity: Area-Based Indicators of Sustainability

Abstract: Conventional wisdom suggests that because of technology and trade, human carrying capacity is infinitely expandable and therefore virtually irrelevant to demography and development planning. By contrast, this article argues that ecological carrying capacity remains the fundamental basis for demographic accounting. A fundamental question for ecological economics is whether remaining stocks of natural capital are adequate to sustain the anticipated load of the human economy into the next century. Since mainstream (neoclassical) models are blind to ecological structure and function, they cannot even properly address this question. The present article therefore assesses the capital stocks, physical flows, and corresponding ecosystems areas required to support the economy using “ecological footprint” analysis. This approach shows that most so-called “advanced” countries are running massive unaccounted ecological deficits with the rest of the planet. Since not all countries can be net importers of carrying capacity, the material standards of the wealthy cannot be extended sustainably to even the present world population using prevailing technology. In this light, sustainability may well depend on such measures as greater emphasis on equity in international relationships, significant adjustments to prevailing terms of trade, increasing regional self-reliance, and policies to stimulate a massive increase in the material and energy efficiency of economic activity.

Environmental Modeling: Fate and Transport of Pollutants in Water, Air, and Soil

Abstract: A comprehensive, thoroughly modern approach to environmental quality assessmentThe only textbook to combine engineering transport fundamentals and equilibrium aquatic chemistry, Environmental Modeling brings a uniquely contemporary perspective to the assessment of environmental quality. Addressing key questions about fate, transport, and long-term effects of chemical pollutants in the environment, this inherently practical text gives readers the important tools they need to develop and solve their own mathematical models.Contains detailed examples from a wide range of crucial water quality areas-conventional pollutants in rivers, eutrophication of lakes, and toxic organic chemicals and heavy metals in both surface and groundwatersExamines current global issues, including atmospheric deposition, hazardous wastes, soil pollution, global change, and moreFeatures over 200 high-quality illustrations, plus skill-building problems in every chapterFresh in approach and broad in scope, Environmental Modeling is must reading for today's graduate and advanced undergraduate students in environmental sciences and engineering-a rich, invaluable, and superlative new resource.

Urban Sustainability Reporting

Abstract: Urban sustainability reporting is a tool for informing local government, as well as individuals, businesses, and other organizations, about the progress that they are making towards achieving urban sustainability. The reporting process starts with the definition of sustainability goals for the community, followed by a scoping stage. Subsequent steps comprise choosing a conceptual framework for reporting, preparing a list of potential sustainability indicators, evaluating them by a variety of criteria, choosing a final set of indicators, analyzing their results, presenting the results to an intended target audience, and then periodically assessing indicator performance.

Sustainability: A Systems Approach

Abstract: * Introduction * General Systems Theory * Complex Adaptive SysteMs. Environmental Factors * Ecosystem Economics * Integrating Economic and Environmental Factors * Economic Policy Instruments * Discounting and Investment * The Levels of Sustainability * Financing the Transition to Sustainability * Economic Development and the Environment * Sociocultural Factors * A Systems Approach to Managing Sustainability * Assessing Sustainability * Conclusions and Recommendations

Principles for the conservation of wild living resources

Abstract: We describe broadly applicable principles for the conservation of wild living resources and mechanisms for their implementation. These principles were engendered from three starting points. First, a set of principles for the conservation of wild living resources (Holt and Talbot 1978) required reexamination and updating. Second, those principles lacked mechanisms for implementation and consequently were not as effective as they might have been. Third, all conservation problems have scientific, economic, and social aspects, and although the mix may vary from problem to problem, all three aspects must be included in problem solving. We illustrate the derivation of, and amplify the meaning of, the principles, and discuss mechanisms for their implementation. The principles are: Principle I. Maintenance of healthy populations of wild living resources in perpetuity is inconsistent with unlimited growth of human consumption of and demand for those resources. Principle II. The goal of conservation should be to secure present and future options by maintaining biological diversity at genetic, species, population, and ecosystem levels; as a general rule neither the resource nor other components of the ecosystem should be perturbed beyond natural boundaries of variation. Principle III. Assessment of the possible ecological and sociological effects of resource use should precede both proposed use and proposed restriction or expansion of ongoing use of a resource. Principle IV. Regulation of the use of living resources must be based on understanding the structure and dynamics of the ecosystem of which the resource is a part and must take into account the ecological and sociological influences that directly and indirectly affect resource use. Principle V. The full range of knowledge and skills from the natural and social sciences must be brought to bear on conservation problems. Principle VI. Effective conservation requires understanding and taking account of the motives, interests, and values of all users and stakeholders, but not by simply averaging their positions. Principle VII. Effective conservation requires communication that is interactive, reciprocal, and continuous. Mechanisms for implementation of the principles are discussed.

Blueprint 3 : Measuring Sustainable Development

Abstract: Blueprint 3 is the direct sequel to the ground-breaking Blueprint for a Green Economy. Taking the argument much further, David Pearce and his colleagues show how progress towards sustainability in the UK can be measured. They set out the conditions for sustainable development and the measures of economic progress these imply, before looking in detail at all the main areas of economic activity to which the measures are applicable. The result is a wide-ranging and cogent critique of existing policies which also offers new options - options which will require far-reaching reform of this country's existing political and institutional structure. Blueprint 3 will be a touchstone for future discussions of all the major policy areas.

Environmentalism and Cultural Theory: Exploring the Role of Anthropology in Environmental Discourse

Abstract: The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the attention paid by social scientists to environmental issues, and a gradual acknowledgement, in the wider community, of the role of social science in the public debate on sustainability. At the same time, the concept of `culture', once the property of anthropologists has gained wide currency among social scientist. These trends have taken place against a growing perception, among specialist and public, of the global nature of contemporary issues. This book shows how an understanding of culture can throw light on the way environmental issues are perceived and interpreted, both by local communities and within the contemporary global arena. Taking an anthropological approach the book examines the relationship between human culture and human ecology, and considers how a cultural approach to the study of environmental issues differs from other established approaches in social science. This book adds significantly to our understanding of environmentalism as a contemporary phenomenon, by demonstrating the distinctive contribution of social and cultural anthropology to the environmental debate. It will be of particular interest to students and researchers in the fields of social science and the environment.

A Typology of Resilience: Rethinking Institutions for Sustainable Development:

Abstract: Under the general rubric of sustainability, societies are now struggling with the reconciliation of the demands of human systems and the health and continuation of the biosphere that supports them....

Environment sustainabilities: An analysis and a typology

Abstract: Most approaches to the business of considering environmental sustainability have taken either a definitional or a discursive form. Both these approaches have their limitations. Better is an analytical strategy revolving around the distillation from the literature of the questions to which any theory of environmental sustainability would have to have an answer. This produces a framework for analysis which can be transformed into a typology by grouping the answers to those questions into four ‘conceptions of sustainability’. Two ‘diagnostic packages’ may be proposed for determining the causes of, and solutions to, unsustainability. These conceptions and packages are useful in themselves for orientation purposes in the increasingly complex territory occupied by discussions of environmental sustainability, but they also have potential for use as tools when considering the normative implications of sustainability policies.

The Ecology of Java and Bali

Abstract: Part A: Ecological concerns and principles 1. Introduction 2. Ecological issues Part B: Ecological components 3. Physical conditions 4. Flora and vegetation 5. Fauna 6. Human background Part C: Ecosystems 7. Coastal ecosystems 8. Mangrove forest 9. Lakes and rivers 10. Lowland forests 11. Mountains 12. Caves 13. Rice and maize 14. Plantation forestry, agroforestry, and estates 15. Aquaculture 16. Urban areas Part D: Conservation 17. Human attitudes 18. Biogeography and the loss of biological diversity 19. State of conservation 20. Major existing and potential conservation areas and their problems Part E: Finding a path for the future 21. Environmental ethics 22. Challenges

Problems and fundamentals of sustainable development indicators

Abstract: Measurement issues are of current concern to organizations faced with the task of promoting sustainability. Single figure aggregate indices of sustainable development (SD), primarily designed for use at the national scale, are not readily applicable locally and are a poor guide for decision-makers and citizens wishing to promote local sustainability. This has led to an abundance of sustainable development indicator (SDI) sets, each comprising a broad range of specific indicators. Existing indicator sets are not obviously compatible and there is a danger that, without the application of a clear method, indicators will be produced in an ad hoc fashion without full consideration of key SD principles or indicator characteristics. Such SDIs may be ineffective in promoting SD and possibly detrimental to the process. This paper examines the background to SDIs, including problems with their construction, and outlines fundamental steps that should be followed to produce any list of SDIs.

Current-Account Sustainability

Abstract: This study argues that a notion of current-account sustainability that considers the willingness to pay and to lend, in addition to intertemporal solvency, provides a better framework for understanding the variety of experiences countries have had with protracted current-account imbalances.

Conceptual framework for the transition from conventional to sustainable agriculture.

Abstract: A conceptual framework for assessing strategies to support the transition from conventional to sustainable agriculture is described, and examples from farming and institutional settings are provided.