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Sustainable human development
Published in Mikateko Mathebula, Engineering Education for Sustainable Development, 2018
While it is clear that the WCED’s definition of sustainable development does not unpack the notion of development per se, it does focus attention on questions surrounding the temporal dimensions of development and how desirable living conditions that have been achieved can and should be maintained. This temporal focus, which brings our attention to what ought to happen (now as well as in the future), enriches the capability approach because it prompts considerations about the future in a way that the capability approach has not done exhaustively in its normative conceptualization of development – that is, by not clarifying which capabilities will matter to this end in the future. Additionally, the capability approach is weaker on its emphasis of the importance of non-human life, specifically in relation to human beings relationship with the natural environment. By ‘natural environment’, I refer to all vegetation, microbes, soil, rocks, atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries. Also included under the term natural environment are all universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, energy, radiation, electric charge and magnetism, not originating from human activity.
Drought Impacts on Urbanization
Published in Saeid Eslamian, Faezeh Eslamian, Handbook of Drought and Water Scarcity, 2017
Shafi Noor Islam, Samina Mazumder Tuli
Managing biodiversity from natural calamities and anthropogenic disturbances is the most serious issue in the contemporary period. The convention recognizes that biological diversity is not only about plants, animals, microorganisms, and their ecosystems; it is about people and our need for food security, medicines, fresh air and water, shelter, and a clean and healthy environment in which to live. Maintaining the earth’s biodiversity is essential for the natural environment to deliver goods and services on which humanity thrives. It is furthermore a key dimension of poverty alleviation. The natural calamities, anthropogenic influences, and climate change impacts are now the major threats to biodiversity protection and keeping the ecosystems friendly [15].
Capacity Building and Drought Management
Published in Saeid Eslamian, Faezeh Eslamian, Handbook of Drought and Water Scarcity, 2017
Shafi Noor Islam, Sandra Reinstädtler, Albrecht Gnauck
Managing biodiversity in the face of natural calamities and anthropogenic disturbances is the most serious issue today. It is usual to think of biological diversity as more about plants, animals, and microorganisms and their ecosystems than about people and our need for food security, medicines, fresh air and water, shelter, and a clean and healthy environment in which to live. Maintaining the earth’s biodiversity is essential for the natural environment to deliver the goods and services on which humanity thrives. It is furthermore a key dimension of poverty alleviation. Natural calamities, anthropogenic influences, and climate change impacts are now the major threats to biodiversity protection and keeping ecosystems friendly. The United Nations, the European Union, Asian nations, and the African community are now actively concerned with biodiversity conservation and the protection of ecosystem services. The European Union (EU) estimated that by 2020 the global comments made in Nagoya in Japan in October 2010 in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) its set of 20 global targets. Some regional political associations and environmental research institutions have already started to orient plans for the implementation of CBD target strategies. The EU has outlined six most important strategies which are targeted by 2020 actions and these are formulated for actions and among them two are very potential strategic actions are the maintenance and protection of agricultural and forestry ecosystems. Other important actions are to maintain and restore ecosystems and their services and to increase the contribution of agriculture and forestry to maintaining ecosystems and biodiversity [22].
A multicriteria framework for selecting information communication technology alternatives for climate change adaptation
Published in Cogent Engineering, 2022
Adebisi John A., Babatunde Damilola E., Babatunde Olubayo M.
Climate change management and mitigation should be well accomplished using cost-efficient and workable tactics. Most often, drought, sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and slow-onset processes can inflict losses and damage to human communities, infrastructures, and the natural environment. This is enough to concentrate more efforts on mitigating this fast-becoming deadly nature of the change in climate being experienced. Anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change and natural climate variability combine to produce these climatic impacts (Lse.ac.uk, 2021). Climate change, as one of the most complex issues facing humans today, is a global problem that involves many dimensions despite being around for many decades, hence adapting to this change through diverse methods is essential (Hinkel, J., & Bisaro, A. (2015). The adjustment to the actual or expected future climate to reduce our vulnerability to the dangerous effect of climate change, especially the sea-level encroachments and the intense weather, among others, is very important (Jiricka-Pürrer et al., 2020). Adapting ICT alternatives to help in building resilience and increase awareness in suburbs or city outskirts is a possibility (John et. al., 2017) and it is one of the central focus of this research (John et al., 2017). ICT tools’ capacity towards adapting to climate change will always improve and limit its effect and will likely require increased attention. In this context, several benefits of climate change mitigation and adaptation through ICT become relevant when planning the realization of the SDGs in this regard.
Construction and spatio-temporal derivation of hazardous chemical leakage disaster chain
Published in International Journal of Image and Data Fusion, 2021
Xinxin Zheng, Fei Wang, Wenyu Jiang, Xiaocui Zheng, Zuhe Wu, Xiaohui Qiao, Qingxiang Meng, Qingguang Chen
The disaster-pregnant environment of hazardous chemical leakage and explosion disasters can be categorised as natural environment and social environment. The natural environment includes topography, landforms, vegetation, soil, hydrology, climate, and meteorological conditions. Among them, meteorological factors such as wind speed, wind direction, atmospheric pressure, and ambient temperature may affect the diffusion distribution of combustibles. The social environment includes chemical enterprises, pipeline and storage facilities, transportation systems, and human activities. The manufacturing, transportation, and storage management of hazardous chemicals are important factors of combustibles leakage, such as fire operation in manufacturing, short-circuit of wires and cables, etc. The damages to chemical transportation systems caused by explosions can expand the scope of disaster as well.
Sustainable development and mega infrastructure: an overview of the issues
Published in Journal of Mega Infrastructure & Sustainable Development, 2019
The need for a form of economic development that was ‘sustainable’ developed from an awareness of the fact that continued economic growth depended on continuing inputs from the natural environment. As Thiele (2013, p. 15) tells us, ‘A German mining administrator of the time [1770s], Hans Carl von Carlowitz, became worried about the loss of forests in his region. The smelting of ores to produce metals required large amounts of wood to fire the furnaces’. The destruction of forests in Saxony for fuel threatened the mining industry, so von Carlowitz devised methods of sustainable (nachhaltende, literally meaning ‘lasting’) use of forests. From the start, then, the term ‘sustainable’ connected the concern for preserving economic growth and its social benefits over the long term with an awareness of the limits of natural resources on which growth depends.