A major challenge of our times is to understand and manage the increasing complexity of socio-economic reality. This has immediate relevance for sustainable development. The impact of recent contributions from systems and complexity sciences in addressing this issue has not filtered down into effective practice - notably, there remain problems caused by the legacy of competing paradigms and the application of their associated methodologies. This book argues the urgency for the application of analytical tools that embody the principles of complexity management. The authors describe a theoretical framework based on complexity science with a focus on organisational and second order cybernetics, one that presents a powerful new insight into the concept of sustainability. The book also describes actual applications of the ideas in the area of organisational, societal and environmental management, and reflects upon the impact of such an approach on current practice.

This book explores the opportunities offered by Strategic Environmental Assessment in the context of guaranteeing the synchronized integration of landscape (in all its aspects) within urban plans, thereby helping to overcome the constraints of rigidly framed, sector-focused laws and a purely aesthetic concept of landscape. In pursuit of this goal, various scholars have previously attempted to construct arrays of indicators relating to the different conceptions of "landscape". This book critically examines the most complete proposals of this nature, systematizing and comparing them and, finally, offering some guidelines with respect to their codification within specific application protocols. After opening chapters exploring the origins of the problem and analysing the European normative frame for Strategic Environmental Assessment, two case studies are described and discussed. A model is then presented for the evaluation of the effects of urban plans on landscape, including in cultural and perceptual terms. The author demonstrates that, when suitably employed, Strategic Environmental Assessment can indeed facilitate the integration of environmental, economic, and social sustainability into urban planning.

Grouping a selection of papers from the 12th International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability, this book refers to all aspects of urban environment and provides solutions that lead towards sustainability. The series maintains its strong reputation and a substantial number of contributions have been made from a diverse range of transnational delegates, resulting in a variety of topics and experiences. Urban areas face a number of challenges related to reducing pollution, improving main transportation and infrastructure systems and these challenges can contribute to the development of social and economic imbalances and require the development of new solutions. The challenge is to manage human activities, pursuing welfare and prosperity in the urban environment, whilst considering the relationships between the parts and their connections with the living world. The dynamics of its networks (flows of energy matter, people, goods, information and other resources) are fundamental for an understanding of the evolving nature of today's cities. Large cities represent a productive ground for architects, engineers, city planners, social and political scientists able to conceive new ideas and time them according to technological advances and human requirements. The multidisciplinary components of urban planning, the challenges presented by the increasing size of cities, the amount of resources required and the complexity of modern society are all addressed. The published papers cover the following fields: Urban Strategies; Urban Conservation and Regeneration; Urban Transportation and Planning; Architectural Issues; Spatial Conflicts in the City; Intelligent Environment; Quality of Life; Cultural Heritage Sites; The Community and the City; Environmental Management; Planning, Development and Management; Planning for Risk and Natural Hazards; Waste Management; Water Resources.

This is the first book to introduce and explain the concept of sustainable consumption with reference to the clothing sector. It uses various case studies to detail sustainable consumption behavior in the industry. Consumption is a key issue and is a major driver when it comes to sustainability in any industry, including clothing sector. Several studies which have highlighted the need for sustainable consumption in the clothing sector are discussed in this book.

It is beyond doubt that the interconnectedness between food, energy, water security and environmental sustainability exists and is getting amplified with increased globalization. It has been recognized that efforts to address only one part of a systemic problem by neglecting other inherently interlinked aspects may not lead to desirable and sustainable outcomes. In this perspective, policy- and decision- making requires a nexus approach that reduces trade-offs and builds synergies across sectors, and helps to reduce costs and increase benefits for humans and nature compared to independent approaches to the management of water, energy, food and the environment. In the past, work related to the Nexus has looked at the interactions between water and food or water and energy, but there has been a reluctance to bring forward a broader systematic perspective that captures the multiple sectors and resource dependencies while understanding its cost to the environment if we neglect these linkages. This book is a compilation of thirteen papers published previously as a special issue of Water International, contains significant pieces of work on the W-E-F nexus focusing on relevant tools, solutions and governance at local and broader human scales.

This book provides an overview of recent advances in Integrated Community-Managed Development (ICMD) as an innovative strategy for the community-based development of local institutions in order to achieve lasting poverty reduction and empowerment. The original approach presented here to improving the lives and livelihoods of the poor takes a critical stance on the failing concept of conventional community development, as it is based on the shifting paradigm of 'bottom-up' cooperation and development, where recent regional autonomy policies are enabling national services to successfully integrate with local institutions at the community level. Based on recent experiences in South-East Asia, where the implementation of an alternative approach to integrating financial, medical, educational, communication and socio-cultural services has led to increased community participation and impressive poverty reduction, the book highlights the theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of this innovative strategy. The potential offered by applying the newly developed 'ICMD formula' worldwide as a function of themes, principles and services is reflected in the book's diverse range of contributions, written by respected researchers and practitioners in the fields of development economics and financial management.

This collection features four peer-reviewed literature reviews on bone health in poultry. The first chapter reviews the literature on genetic mapping of skeletal traits in both broilers and layers, including both the genetics of skeletal defects and bone quality. As the chapter shows, linkage mapping and genome-wide association studies have identified promising candidate genes with potential for breeding more robust birds. The second chapter focuses on bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO), one of the most common causes of lameness in broilers. The chapter summarizes the pathogenesis of BCO and reviews the efficacy of probiotics as a prophylactic treatment. The third chapter discusses bone health in laying hens. It reviews bone development, keel and other bone health problems and factors contributing to poor bone health. It also summarises key strategies for improving bone health, including breeding, nutrition, rearing practices and housing. The final chapter assesses the problem of lameness in intensively-reared broiler flocks. The chapter also discusses skin health in broilers. It summarises key risk factors as well as ways of monitoring and reducing the problem, from breeding programmes and enrichment to sequential feeding regimes.

This is the third volume of the proceedings of the 8th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (ICEG 2018), held on October 28 - November 1, 2018 in Hangzhou, China. The theme of the congress is "Towards a Sustainable Geoenvironment", which means meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Under this theme, the congress covers a broad range of topics and provides an excellent opportunity for academics, engineers, scientists, government officials, regulators, and planners to present, discuss and exchange notes on the latest advances and developments in the research and application of environmental geotechnics.

This edited volume summarizes information about the situational context, threats, problems, challenges and solutions for sustainable pastoralism at a global scale. The book has four goals. The first goal is to summarize the information about the history, distribution and patterns of pastoralism and to identify the importance of pastoralism from social, economic and environmental perspectives. The results of an empirical investigation of the environmental and socio-economic implications of pastoralism in representative pastoral regions in the world are also incorporated. The second goal is to argue that breaking coupled human-natural systems of pastoralism leads to degradation of pastoral ecosystems and to create an analysis framework to assess the vulnerability of worldwide pastoralism. Our analysis framework provides approaches to help comprehensively understand the transitions and the impacts of human-natural systems in the pastoral regions in the world. The third goal is to identify the successful models in promoting coupled human-natural systems of pastoralism, and to learn lessons of breaking coupled human-cultural pastoralism systems through examining the representative cases in regions including Central Asia, Southern and Eastern Asia, Northern and Eastern Africa, the European Alps and South America. The fourth goal is to identify the strategies to build the resilience of the coupled human-natural systems of pastoralism worldwide. We hope that our book can facilitate the further examination of sustainable development of coupled human-natural systems of pastoralism by providing the summaries of existing data and information related to the pastoralism development, and by offering a framework for better understanding and analysis of their social, economic and environmental implications.

This book presents the proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Water Energy Food and Sustainability - ICoWEFS 2021, a major forum to foster innovation and exchange knowledge in the water-energy-food nexus, embracing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, bringing together leading academics, researchers and industrial experts. It contains the work of authors from 33 countries.

This book documents and disseminates experiences from a wide range of universities, across the five continents, which showcase how the principles of sustainable development may be incorporated as part of university programmes, and present transformatory projects and programmes, showing how sustainability can be implemented across disciplines. Sustainability in a higher education context is a fast growing field. Thousands of universities across the world have signed declarations or have committed themselves to integrate the principles of sustainable development in their activities: teaching, research and extension, and many more will follow.

This volume brings together multiple perspectives on both the changing Arctic environment and the challenges and opportunities it presents for the shipping sector. It argues for the adoption of a forward-looking agenda that respects the fragile and changing Arctic frontier. With the accelerated interest in and potential for new maritime trade routes, commercial transportation and natural resource development, the pressures on the changing Arctic marine environment will only increase. The International Maritime Organization Polar Code is an important step toward Arctic stewardship. This new volume serves as an important guide to this rapidly developing agenda. Addressing a range of aspects, it offers a valuable resource for academics, practitioners, environmentalists and affected authorities in the shipping industry alike.

This book discusses the role of ESD stakeholders at university level, involving civil society and the private sector and public sectors (including local, national and intergovernmental bodies). In particular, it describes practical experiences, partnerships, networks, and training schemes for increasing the capacity of ESD and other initiatives aimed at promoting education for sustainable development taking place at institutions of higher education. In order to meet the pressing need for publications that may promote stakeholders' involvement in ESD in higher education, the book particularly focuses on state-of-the-art approaches, methods, initiatives and projects from around the world, illustrating the contribution of different stakeholder groups to sustainable development in higher education on an international scale.

The ultimate illustrated guide for sourcing, processing and using wild clay. Potters around the world are taking to the local landscape to dig their own wild clay, discover its unique properties, and apply it to their craft. This guide is the ideal starting point for anyone - from novices, improvers and experts to educators and students - who wants to forge a closer bond between their art and their surroundings. Testing and trial and error are key to finding a material's best use, so the authors' tips, drawn from long experience in the US and Japan (but which can be applied to clays anywhere) provide an enviable head-start on this rewarding journey. A clay might be best suited to sculpture and tile bodies, throwing clay bodies, handbuilding and slab bodies, or simply be applied as a glaze or slip. The specific properties of found materials can create a diverse range of effects and surfaces, or, even when not fired, can be adapted for use as colorful pastels or pigments. Beautiful illustrations and helpful technical descriptions explain the formation of various clays; how to locate, collect and assess them; how to test their properties of shrinkage, water absorption, texture and plasticity; the best ways to test-fire them; and how to adapt a clay's characteristics by blending appropriate materials. From prospecting in the field to holding your finished product, there is helpful advice through every stage, and a gallery of work by international potters who have embraced the clays found around them.

This book presents the outcome of the Towards Sustainable Land Use in Asia (SLUAS) project, which was the pilot undertaking for development in a series of projects on land use. Monsoon Asia, with its huge and still increasing population and rapid socioeconomic changes, is regarded as a major hot spot of global change in general and of land use change in particular. The major issues include urbanization, rural development, land-related problems such as food problems, and disasters in the context of global change and sustainability. Future Earth, the new international research framework established by International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), and other international academic or funding organizations for a sustainable world, has chosen the Global Land Project (GLP) as one of the first such international projects it has endorsed that originated from International Geosphere/Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and/or International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP). This endorsement is a clear indication of the importance of the issues related to land use and its changes. Land use change is an essential driving force of environmental change, a result of socioeconomic and environmental changes, and is a major environmental change itself. Because of this complex and multifaceted nature and the difficulties in obtaining relevant data with historical depth, this phenomenon has not been studied fully in the context of global change or sustainability. It is hoped that this book is of use to those who are concerned about the present and future land use in the world.

Increasing concerns regarding the world's natural resources and sustainability continue to be a major issue for global development. As a result several political initiatives and strategies for green or resource-efficient growth both on national and international levels have been proposed. A core element of these initiatives is the promotion of an increase of resource or material productivity. This dissertation examines material productivity developments in the OECD and BRICS countries between 1980 and 2008. By applying the concept of convergence stemming from economic growth theory to material productivity the analysis provides insights into both aspects: material productivity developments in general as well potentials for accelerated improvements in material productivity which consequently may allow a reduction of material use globally. The results of the convergence analysis underline the importance of policy-making with regard to technology and innovation policy enabling the production of resource-efficient products and services as well as technology transfer and diffusion.

Chemistry for Sustainable Development in Africa gives an insight into current Chemical research in Africa. It is edited and written by distinguished African scientists and includes contributions from Chemists from Northern, Southern, Western, Eastern, Central and Island state African Countries. The core themes embrace the most pressing issues of our time, including Environmental Chemistry, Renewable Energies, Health and Human Well-Being, Food and Nutrition, and Bioprospecting and Commercial Development. This book is invaluable for teaching and research institutes in Africa and worldwide, private sector entities dealing with natural products from Africa, as well as policy and decision-making bodies and non-governmental organizations.

The book concentrates on Latin America, where urbanization is most advanced. It provides an indepths study of one particular city, Santiago de Chile, to study the complexity of a 'mega-urban system' and to explore interrelations between sectors and issues. The book attempts to (i) focus on the emergence of risk in megacities by analyzing risk elements, (ii) evaluating the extent and severity of risks, (iii) developing strategies to cope with adverse risks, and (iv) to guide urban development by combining concepts with empirical evidence.

The content draws on interdisciplinary work carried out by a research consortium of the German Helmholtz Association, partners from Universities in Chile and Germany, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and praxis partners. The book is written for scholars in cross-cutting areas of urban, sustainability, hazard, governance and planning research, as well as practitioners from local, regional and international organizations.

Innovative technologies provide opportunities for making manufacturing and logistics operations cleaner and more resource-efficient. New technologies focus on lifecycle engineering and lifecycle management. This book will be valuable to both academics and practitioners who wish to deepen their knowledge of technology management. The book will cover technical, organizational, financial and social issues connected to the implementation of more sustainable technologies.

Over the past decade, the use of Renewable Energy Technology (RET) has significantly increased around the globe. Technologies that once were considered experimental are now being deployed on commercial scales at phenomenal rates, delivering cost-effective substitutions for conventional, fossil fuel-based systems that cause problems including greenhouse gas emissions, expensive operating costs, and global pollution. But these new systems come at a costly rate, and because of this, officials must review their overall efficiency and effectiveness. Global Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy Systems pushes through the boundaries of current research to introduce the concept of an energy management information system, exploring the role of energy for sustainable development. This book goes into great detail describing the benefits of these systems for organizations, focusing on corporate sustainability initiatives and activities to combat climate change. Research presented in this publication includes modeling techniques, software applications, and case studies that reveal how renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and biomass fuel can have a significant implications for both operating costs and environmental impacts.

Drawing on more than 30 case studies from around the world, this book offers a multitude of examples for improving the governance of small-scale fisheries. Contributors from some 36 countries argue that reform, transformation and innovation are vital to achieving sustainable small-scale fisheries - especially for mitigating the threats and vulnerabilities of global change. For this to happen, governing systems must be context-specific and the governability of small-scale fisheries properly assessed. The volume corresponds well with the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries adopted in 2014, spearheaded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). These affirm the importance of small-scale fisheries for food security, nutrition, livelihoods, rural development and poverty reduction. The book arises from the project Too Big To Ignore: Global Partnership for Small-Scale Fisheries Research (TBTI). "A nuanced, diverse, vibrant and local-specific collection of essays - just as the small-scale fisheries around the world - dealt with by this versatile array of authors. Following on the heels of the recently adopted FAO Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines, here is an erudite compendium which I heartily recommend to policy makers, academics and activists who wish to come to terms with the complex issue of governance of this important field of human activity." John Kurien - Founding Member of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), and Former Professor, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, India "Likely to become a classic in its field, this book is about small-scale fisheries and interactive governance - governance which is negotiated, deliberated upon, and communicated among stakeholders who often share governing responsibilities. The authors show that interactive governance is not just a normative theory but a phenomenon that can be studied empirically, here with 34 case studies from as many countries around the world, north and south, east and west. Such "force of example" enables the editors to put together well-developed arguments and sometimes surprising conclusions about the way ahead. A must-read for managers, practitioners, stakeholders, and students!" Fikret Berkes - University of Manitoba, Canada, and author of Coasts for People

The contributors to this volume propose strategies of urgent and vital importance that aim to make today's urban environments more resilient. Resilience, the ability of complex systems to adapt to changing conditions, is a key frontier in ecological research and is especially relevant in creative urban design, as urban areas exemplify complex systems. With something approaching half of the world's population now residing in coastal urban zones, many of which are vulnerable both to floods originating inland and rising sea levels, making urban areas more robust in the face of environmental threats must be a policy ambition of the highest priority. The complexity of urban areas results from their spatial heterogeneity, their intertwined material and energy fluxes, and the integration of social and natural processes. All of these features can be altered by intentional planning and design. The complex, integrated suite of urban structures and processes together affect the adaptive resilience of urban systems, but also presupposes that planners can intervene in positive ways. As examples accumulate of linkage between sustainability and building/landscape design, such as the Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park and Toronto's Lower Don River area, this book unites the ideas, data, and insights of ecologists and related scientists with those of urban designers. It aims to integrate a formerly atomized dialog to help both disciplines promote urban resilience.

This book covers initiatives related to higher education's public mission such as university-community engagement, knowledge transfer, economic development, and social responsibility, using empirical and conceptual cases in the US, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. In order to develop a better understanding of public mission initiatives in higher education across the globe, the volume editors developed a theoretical framework emerging from organizational theory. Each chapter analysis uses both external environmental elements (political, economic, sociocultural, and technological), as well as internal institutional elements (mission, vision, leadership, and governance). Finally, each chapter highlights issues related to implementation and challenges with the intent of prompting readers to consider appropriate ways in which to adopt some of the lessons learned by the contributing authors.Chapter 10 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.m.

What is the role of the university? Current systems may stress research output, but Wortham-Galvin, Allen, and Sherman seek to re-establish the importance of teaching and service in the work of the 21st-century university. The Sustainable Solutions series shares Portland State University's experience of community-engaged teaching and research. With a focus on sustainability, we see that such collaboration is vital to making Portland one of the world's most sustainable cities. Volume 2, University-Community Partnerships, builds on the themes introduced in Volume 1, Let Knowledge Serve the City, to explore how these partnerships play out in practice. Covering 13 projects, which range from supporting local artisans and researching food access, to sharing Indigenous history and decolonizing perceptions of knowledge, readers receive pragmatic advice on working with community organizations. Authors also offer critical reflection on how theories of engagement have structured PSU's work and how their findings impact our very understanding of partnership. This reader-friendly text provides an ideal introduction to anyone wishing to learn more about models of effective collaboration and how to put these into practice. Explained through the context of specific projects, the book offers both inspiration and practical guidance to anyone - in local government, academia, or the third sector - looking to set up productive community-university partnerships.