This book is in part a response to the attempts of governments to address increasing concerns over such environmental issues as the impact of climate change; carbon emissions; pressures from overpopulation of cities; coal seam gas extraction and depleting natural resources. The authors have developed a Sustainable Communities Framework (SCF) which incorporates social-cultural, environmental and economic sustainability principles in the process of urban planning. The authors propose a five-step SCF built on an application of sustainability tables. The book examines a wide range of urban planning practices utilizing sustainability criteria, outlining both qualitative and quantitative tools. Separate chapters discuss application of the SCF to both the natural environment and the built environment. This framework is applied to a case study of the outer Sydney growth area of Wyong Shire, Central Coast, NSW, Australia. Addressing the question of how best to measure the environment, the authors present a table for selecting indicators of sustainability, and outline sustainability scorecards which use color-coded ratings of green, red and amber to measure indicators of sustainability. The authors show how aggregating these ratings allows the framework to be scaled up for application to larger areas. Finally, the authors show how scorecards can be incorporated in sustainability reports, with actions and monitoring components. The authors also examine urban planning education including land use planning, natural resource planning and sustainable urban planning, focusing on the extent to which schools incorporate principles of sustainability. The authors offer their critique on the movement of planning practices towards a more coordinated and holistic framework, in incorporating sustainability principles. Sustainable Communities: A Framework for Planning concludes by drawing a future scenario on the application of the SCF to incorporate principles of sustainability into urban planning. The authors propose future options for SCF applications, including adopting a systems program; environmental performance monitoring and showing how the framework will accommodate the social-cultural and economic components of sustainability, in addition to the environmental ones as examined in the case study.

This book presents the meaning of green infrastructure and its concerns to the contribution of materials and applications. It explores the evolving contested material under "green infrastructure" covering timber, concrete, soil, and pavement. It discusses the resistance to the ambiguity of managing the construction of green infrastructure and drawing on wider debates around applications and processes on construction. These contributions are by no means definitive, but rather an attempt to provide a detached and holistic perspective on the engineering "green infrastructure" concept.

This book introduces current managerial approaches to energy production and energy use. The volume analyses how to manage technological developments that contribute to lowering the price of energy production and also focuses on the impact renewable energy sources that provide continuity in energy production and how to manage it. The book presents studies on the effectiveness of wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydroelectric energies and discusses current technological approaches to prevent environmental pollution such as carbon capture and storage. Furthermore, the book includes sustainable economic and financial strategies to use energy more effectively and efficiently. It thus appeals not only to an academic readership but also to energy management professionals working in this field.

This book focuses on the behavioral interactions among possible stakeholders in carbon labeling practice, brings the attentions of stakeholders' interests to explore the opportunities, and challenges related to carbon labeling practice, thus to provide insight into low-carbon consumption and production. It is essential reading for students, researchers, and policy makers as well as those with a wider interest in environmental science and sustainable development.

This book presents five interesting chapters dealing with the sustainability of toys. The concept of sustainability has reached all industrial sectors these days and being practiced in almost all the sectors. One of the main sectors where sustainability has to be embedded to the core is the toy sector. Needless to enumerate the importance of sustainability in this sector especially when it comes to usage of chemicals and so on. There are various elements associated with the sustainability of toys and there is a dearth of published literature on this subject.

This book explores how China's industrial transformation and development depend on technology and innovation and how considerations about issues associated with technology and innovation may affect China's development strategies. Market-oriented reforms initiated four decades ago have constantly fueled a high speed of development in China. The country's industrial structure has experienced rapid evolution. In the meantime, especially in the general context of globalization, the country has also opened to foreign trade and foreign direct investment, transforming itself from a virtually completely closed economy into a major trading nation and the largest developing country destination for foreign direct investment in the world. Technology is thought to be one of the key driving forces that shape the transformation of the Chinese economy. Owing to different speeds of innovation and technology diffusion, uneven development is one major issue in the process of China's industrial transformation under new trends of globalization. Substantial disparities across different Chinese regions, e.g., the gaps in regional industrial development and those in incomes and living standards, have been one prominent feature of China and are (needless to say) closely related to different speeds of innovation and technology diffusion. The relationship between technology diffusion, innovation, and industrial development is an important yet complicated issue that deserves careful study. Considerations related to technology and innovation play a crucial role in leading and shaping China's development strategies and routes. Sustainable development of China creates strong pressures for continuous transforming, upgrading, and restructuring of the Chinese economy, and in all of these processes, innovation and technology diffusion play a fundamental role. The book presents to the interested reader facts, thoughts, models, empirical results, and discussions that shed light on those issues.

This book deals with a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. It is a discipline that addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion. Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on integrated knowledge from sciences as diverse as agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economy, and social sciences. Indeed, sustainable agriculture decipher mechanisms of processes that occur from the molecular level to the farming system to the global level at time scales ranging from seconds to centuries. For that, scientists use the system approach that involves studying components and interactions of a whole system to classical, narrow science. Instead of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach that treats only negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats problem sources. Because most actual society issues are now intertwined, global, and fast developing, sustainable agriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world. this book series gathers review articles that analyze current agricultural issues and knowledge, then proposes alternative solutions. It will therefore help all scientists, decision makers, professors, farmers and politicians who wish to build a safe agriculture, energy and food system for future generations.

This book provides a broad investigation of various issues in East Asia's steel industry since the 1980s, including international specialization and trade relations, the sustainable use of resources, technological innovations, and environmental mitigation, alongside a consideration of the rapid growth in Chinese steel industry. Using macro and firm-level data, and case studies based on field research to discuss issues concerning the steel industry in East Asia. In search of an easy understanding, we try to simplify complicated economic models and statistical analyses, and concentrate on policy implications based as much as possible on the results of empirical analyses. We believe that this book will be of interest to policymakers, economists, practitioners and advocates of sustainability.

This volume analyzes cases from emerging economies in relation to the global endeavor to promote the vision of sustainable development in all forms of education. It aims to discuss the significance of hearing local voices and understanding local discourse regarding strategies for action for change, and the role of educational systems as a means to communicate, promote and educate for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this book, emerging economies are defined as newly industrialized countries that have not yet reached developed status, but have, in a macro-economic sense, outpaced their developing counterparts. In this context, the book highlights how education in emerging economies could extend conventional economic methods to sustainability issues, or depart from money-based calculations and business-dominated values to promotion of real-life considerations and ethical, environmental and humanistic values. With the help of this volume, readers will have a chance to look at educational response, inclusion and empowerment for SDGs in countries with emerging economies, and to grasp the synthesis of Education for Sustainable Development/Global Citizenship Education (ESD/GCE) within the overall national educational systems. This volume focuses on early childhood through upper secondary education.

From cocoa farming in Ghana to the orchards of Kent and the desert badlands of Pakistan, taking a practical approach to sustaining the landscape can mean the difference between prosperity and ruin. Working with Nature is the story of a lifetime of work, often in extreme environments, to harvest nature and protect it - in effect, gardening on a global scale. It is also a memoir of encounters with larger-than-life characters such as William Bunting, the gun-toting saviour of Yorkshire's peatlands and the aristocratic gardener Vita Sackville-West, examining their idiosyncratic approaches to conservation. Jeremy Purseglove explains clearly and convincingly why it's not a good idea to extract as many resources as possible, whether it's the demand for palm oil currently denuding the forests of Borneo, cottonfield irrigation draining the Aral Sea, or monocrops spreading across Britain. The pioneer of engineering projects to preserve nature and landscape, first in Britain and then around the world, he offers fresh insights and solutions at each step.

This book, based on international collaborative research, presents a state-of-the-art design for "Smart Master Planning" for all metropolises, megacities and metacities as well as at subcity zonal and community and neighborhood level. Smart Master Planning accepts that all cities are a smart city in making in a limited way as far as the six components for smart cities, namely smart people, smart economy, smart environment, smart mobility and smart governance are concerned. Smart Master Planning in any city can only be designed and executed by active roles of smart people and smart city government and is a joint and synchronous effort of e-democracy, e-governance and ICT-IOT system in a 24 hour 7-day framework on all activities. In addition to use of information and communication technologies and remote sensing, the design of Smart Master Planning utilizes domain-specific tools of many aspects of a city to realize the coordinated, effective and efficient planning, management, development and conservation that improve ecological, social, biophysical, psychological and economic wellbeing in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of development ecosystems and stakeholders. This book will present 12 case studies covering more than 12 cities or more cities centered on domain-specific smart planning components. Case studies of digital innovations in the Smart Master Planning include Application of Artificial Neural Network in Master Planning for cities, Smart Master Plan and 3 D GIS Planning Support System and Digital Spatial Master Planning Incorporating Machine to Machine Automation for Smart Economic Community (IoT, ICT and M2M based Digital Integration).

"The fourth sector" is a relatively new sector that consists of for-benefit organizations that combine market-based approaches of the private sector with the social and environmental aims of the public and non-profit sectors. This book examines trends of entrepreneurship in the fourth sector, describes specific ecosystems fostering new ventures around the world, and characterizes the most common and innovative business models. It covers as well the main effects, among others, of technological change, innovation, and institutional behavior on the sector in the last years.

This book discusses Kazakhstan's transitioning trajectory to a market economy since it declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.. It analyses the evolution of key policy areas and sectors through the lens of policy development and implementation, and evaluates their suitability in pursuing the country's strategic objectives. Topics include policy initiatives for economic development, new policy paradigms in public service delivery and infrastructure improvement, and water-energy-food (WEF) nexus thinking in governing the WEF sectors. The book argues that policies developed in the 1990s and 2000s have so far served the nation's needs. Nevertheless, as Kazakhstan seeks to achieve a competitive edge worldwide, many of these policies would require adjustment, or a paradigm shift. Providing a unique outlook on policy and governance, this book will appeal to scholars, students, and practitioners involved with Kazakhstan and Central Asia and interested in the transformation of ex-Soviet nations, their policy, and sustainable development.

This book provides essential information and recent findings on hydro-environmental issues in the Lower Danube River, particularly its hydrological and hydromorphological processes; physico-chemical features; climate and water-related hazards; and not only the biodiversity and quality but also the sustainable management and governance of its hydro-environment. Accordingly, it presents a broad range of scientific information on the lower sector of the second-longest river in Europe, which holds major economic importance and has been severely impacted by human pressures, especially since the second part of the last century. The engineering works (e.g. dams, reservoirs, levees, channelization, etc.) on the Danube and its tributaries, despite their benefits to society, have altered its flow and significantly reduced its sediment load, with consequences for hydromorphological processes and aquatic ecosystems. These ecosystems have also been affected by pollution from various sources. To promote sustainable management of the Danube River and its watershed, several strategies and measures have been developed by a number of institutions, from the European level to the national and regional levels (commissions, national authorities, non-governmental organizations, etc.). Compared to the upper and middle sectors of the Danube, the lower sector has received less attention in the international scientific literature in terms of hydro-environmental issues. The book fills this gap and provides current and original insights and findings from recent studies conducted by scientists from three countries drained by the Lower Danube River and its tributaries: Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. This unique book will be of great scientific interest to professional engineers, policy planners and policymakers in the three countries mentioned above, helping them to implement their own sustainable development plans. It also offers a valuable resource for graduate students, researchers and stakeholders.

This book highlights how the human security aspect has been affected by the global pandemic, based on the specific case study, field data, and evidence. COVID-19 has exemplified that the pandemic is global, but its responses are local. The responses depend on national governance and policy framework, use of technology and innovation, and people's perceptions and behavior, among many others. There are many differences in how the pandemic has affected the rich and the poor, urban and rural sectors, development and fiscal sectors, and developed and developing nations and communities.Echoing human security principles, the 2030 Agenda emphasized a "world free of poverty, hunger, disease and want... free of fear and violence... with equitable and universal access to quality education, health care, and social protection....to safe drinking water and sanitation... where food is sufficient, safe, affordable and nutritious... where habitats are safe, resilient and sustainable...and where there is universal access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy." These basic human security [PA1] principles and development agenda are highly affected by the global pandemic worldwide, irrespective of its development and economic status. Thus, the book highlights the nexus between human security and development issues. It has two major pillars, one is the development and the other is technology issues. These two inter-dependent topics are discussed in the perspective of the global pandemic, making this the most important feature of this book.While the world is still in the middle of a pandemic, and possibly other natural and biological hazards may affect peoples' lives and livelihoods in the future, this book provides some key learning, which can be used to cope with future uncertainties, including climate risks. Thus, the book is timely and relevant to wider readers.

This innovative book investigates the concept of collapse in terms of our built environment, exploring the future transition of modern cities towards scenarios very different from the current promises of progress and development. This is not a book about the end of the world and hopeless apocalyptic scenarios. It is about understanding change in how and where we live. Collapse is inevitable, but in the built environment collapse could imply a manageable situation, an opportunity for change or a devastating reality. Collapsing gracefully means that there might be better ways to coexist with collapse if we learn more about it and commit to rebuild our civilisations in ways that avoid its worst effects. This book uses a wide range of practical examples to study critical changes in the built environment, to contextualise and visualise what collapse looks like, to see if it is possible to buffer its effects in places already collapsing and to propose ways to develop greater resilience. The book challenges all agents and institutions in modern cities, their designers and planners as well as their residents and users to think differently about built environment so as to ease our coexistence with collapse and not contribute to its causes. .

This book focuses on the importance and roles of seed microbiomes in sustainable agriculture by exploring the diversity of microbes vectored on and within seeds of both cultivated and non-cultivated plants. It provides essential insights into how seeds can be adapted to enhance microbiome vectoring, how damaged seed microbiomes can be assembled again and how seed microbiomes can be conserved. Plant seeds carry not only embryos and nutrients to fuel early seedling growth, but also microbes that modulate development, soil nutrient acquisition, and defense against pathogens and other stressors. Many of these microbes (bacteria and fungi) become endophytic, entering into the tissues of plants, and typically exist within plants without inducing negative effects. Although they have been reported in all plants examined to date, the extent to which plants rely on seed vectored microbiomes to enhance seedling competitiveness and survival is largely unappreciated. How microbes function to increase the fitness of seedlings is also little understood. The book is a unique and important resource for researchers and students in microbial ecology and biotechnology. Further, it appeals to applied academic and industrial agriculturists interested in increasing crop health and yield.

Ecosystem-Based Adaptation: Approaches to Sustainable Management of Aquatic Resources presents a close examination of the role of ecosystem-based adaptation in managing river basins, aquifers, flood plains and their vegetation to provide water storage and flood regulation. Furthermore, the book explores improved ecosystem-based services for managing floods, conservation of water and its resources (including watersheds), avoiding water scarcity, and ensuring long-term water security planning, all in the context of sustainable development goals. This book will help scientists pave the way for easy implementation of sustainable development goals, ensuring a secure and sustainable future.

This book gives a special emphasis to state-of-the-art descriptions of approaches, methods, initiatives, and projects from universities, stakeholders, organizations, and civil society across the world, regarding cross-cutting issues in sustainable development. There is a perceived need for mobilizing the various stakeholders when attempting to promote sustainability in higher education and to promote best practices, which may inspire further initiatives. But despite this need, there are a few publications handling this matter in a coherent way. In order to meet the pressing need for publications which may document and disseminate examples of best practice on sustainable development at university level, the "Handbook of Best Practices in Sustainable Development at University Level" is being published. This book is produced by the European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR), through the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) and contains inputs from authors across all geographical regions. The book also discusses examples of initiatives coordinated by universities but involving civil society, the private sector, and public sector (including local, national, and intergovernmental bodies). In particular, it describes practical experiences, partnerships, networks, and training schemes for building capacity aimed at fostering the cause of sustainable development at institutions of higher education. Thanks to its design and the contributions by experts from various areas, it provides a welcome contribution to the literature on sustainable development, and it may inspire further works in this field.

Evaluating building materials for environmental sustainability is a complex prospect. How do governmental agencies and the design industry actually measure sustainable initiatives and environmental impacts? This book breaks down the technical vocabulary and principles that define environmentally sustainable choices across interior and exterior architectural products to help the reader understand: Material ingredient selection Energy and water use Emissions, including greenhouse gases Human health and toxicity Social accountability assessment This guide explains the structure of green certifications, standards and ecolabels, life cycle assessment, environmental regulations, and more. It presents a historic timeline for context and a snapshot of current trends and future objectives. It is a comprehensive reference for interior designers, architects, building owners, contractors, and students enrolled in interior design and architecture.

The book provides insights into the particular nature of water-related challenges in metropolitan regions of the Global South and the "scalar mismatches" that prevent their sustainable and inclusive development. It argues for the adoption of a metropolitan water governance approach to assess these challenges, including the drivers and institutions that shape these, and the policy instruments at river basin and urban scales that aim to address these. The cases of Mexico City and Sao Paulo, as two mega-cities with a wide ranging of water-related challenges, present lessons to other fast growing urban agglomerations on the variety of possible responses as well as obstacles to their effectiveness that receive little attention.

This book provides a detailed life cycle assessment of photovoltaic technologies in order to analyse the environmental and socioeconomic impacts that a large deployment of solar photovoltaic systems will produce in the near future. Including both commercial and emerging technologies, the book presents the energy and materials requirements to manufacture solar electricity power systems at the order of the TeraWatt scale deployment as is envisaged by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) for the near future. It discusses current manufacturing practices and how these may be adapted in the future including: reuse and recycling of components and materials; raw material supply chains to the manufacturing factories; and end-of-life procedures including recycling and landfilling of modules. The environmental and socioeconomic impacts of solar energy are analysed in detail, providing recommendations for standardization and regulations in order to make photovoltaic technologies, both current and emerging, a really sustainable alternative for the supply of "greener" electricity.

This book highlights the latest research on responsible business and its practical implications for the economy, society, academia, and politics. It presents selected contributions from respected scholars and experts who have conducted international research on corporate social responsibility, sustainability, ethics, corporate governance, finance, and responsible investing.  The book examines the spreading and enhancement of CSR and sustainability at the micro, meso, and macro levels, especially in light of their increased relevance following the recent pandemic. Taken together, the results of the empirically and theoretically based contributions offer a unique and multi-faceted perspective on current global trends and expected developments in this area. They cover a wide range of contexts and situations, helping readers expand their knowledge and drive effective change to tap their organizations’ full potential.