Search results for "Sustainable development"
showing 10 items of 638 documents
The role of transformation in learning and education for sustainability
2018
Education research has acknowledged the value of transformation, which offers an opportunity for researching and rethinking how appropriate and successful educational practices may be. However, despite the role of transformation in higher education and particularly in sustainability learning, there is a paucity of studies which examine the extent to which transformation and learning on matters related to sustainable development may be integrated. Based on this perceived research need, the purpose of this article is to present how transformation in learning in education for sustainability requires the commitment of Faculty and the engament of students. To do this, a set of qualitative case s…
The role of higher education institutions in sustainability initiatives at the local level
2019
FNEGE 2, HCERES B, ABS 2; International audience; Universities are central players and important economic actors in many regions, and many of them are, in general, nationally and internationally active in respect of matters related to sustainable development. But there is a paucity of research which examines their contributions towards sustainability efforts at the local level, i.e. in the places they are situated. This paper addresses this need, by reporting on a qualitative study deploying a Matrix, which allows an analysis and reporting of regional sustainable development initiatives of a set of 22 universities in industrialised and developing countries. Recommendations to enhance their …
The significance of soils and soil science towards realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
2016
Abstract. In this forum paper we discuss how soil scientists can help to reach the recently adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the most effective manner. Soil science, as a land-related discipline, has important links to several of the SDGs, which are demonstrated through the functions of soils and the ecosystem services that are linked to those functions (see graphical abstract in the Supplement). We explore and discuss how soil scientists can rise to the challenge both internally, in terms of our procedures and practices, and externally, in terms of our relations with colleague scientists in other disciplines, diverse groups of stakeholders and the policy arena. To meet th…
The role of soils in regulation and provision of blue and green water
2021
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims for clean water and sanitation for all by 2030, through eight subgoals dealing with four themes: (i) water quantity and availability, (ii) water quality, (iii) finding sustainable solutions and (iv) policy and governance. In this opinion paper, we assess how soils and associated land and water management can help achieve this goal, considering soils at two scales: local soil health and healthy landscapes. The merging of these two viewpoints shows the interlinked importance of the two scales. Soil health reflects the capacity of a soil to provide ecosystem services at a specific location, taking into account local climate and soil condit…
On Sustainable Management in Local Governance of Water: a Prospective Localized Study
2006
In the face of the changes in the planet's natural resources and of their unequal distribution, it is becoming more urgent that contemporary societies oversee environmental assets in a global manner. Although international directives, when they are transposed into national laws, may set specific objectives, meeting them at the local level is as yet an uneven enterprise. Nevertheless we hope to demonstrate, using a case-study involving local tensions over water resources, that public management of the crisis may be developed that effectively involves the civic society, by using the incentives and enforcement tools of central government and of local institutions.
The circular economy model in the socio-economic systems of the wood industry : the case of the Tomsk oblast
2021
Using the Circular Economy (CE) model appears to be today a means more and more employed by organizations and public policies to overcome the problem of waste and bring it to a new stage of progress: the one of sustainability. If the issue of diagnosis and the need for a transition to CE is generally no longer discussed, the question of its implementation is all the more so, especially in Russia. Depending on the type of economic sector and the territory considered, an CE strategy cannot be viewed in the same way. Whether in terms of natural resources, labour or capital, different economic factors are brought to interfere in the search for circularity and sustainability. The objective of th…
Multifunctionality: refocusing a spreading, loose and fashionable concept for looking at sustainability?
2008
International audience; The notion of agriculture's Multifunctionality (MF) emerged in the 1980s. It then followed two trajectories since the 1990s: a conflicting period linked to its use in the international trade negotiations on the one hand, a spreading in terms of meaning, use and geographically on the other hand. Specific meanings appeared in connection with policy making, at national or international levels, or through the involvement of new disciplines. Yet, very few authors discuss the implication of the chosen meaning on their findings. To explore and take advantage of using this word and to deliver it from its controversial use in international trade negotiations, it is absolutely…
Land use functions — a multifunctionality approach to assess the impact of land use changes on land use sustainability
2008
Part 5. Regional and local evaluation - 17; International audience; The dramatic changes in land use observed in Europe in the last fifty years have generally resulted in improvement of human welfare and economic development. On the other hand, they have caused serious environmental problems. There is therefore a need for approaches that help to understand in an integrative way the economic, environmental and societal impacts that land use changes have on sustainability. Sustainability Impact Assessment(SIA), which assesses the impact of policies on sustainability, addresses this challenge. SIA partly builds on the concept of the multifunctionality of land which helps to deal with the compl…
Agroecology and Strategies for Climate Change
2012
; Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. Sustainable agriculture 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 fro…
Systemic Approach and Modelling of the Socio-Spatial Segregation Phenomenon of Cities in the East of France.
2007
International audience; Territorial sustainable development must be regarded as a mutual enrichment of participatory research-action activity, which improves the utility and the accessibility of territorial knowledge and conventional research, which guarantees quality in the long-term. Territorial intelligence, which integrates the concepts of locality, knowledge based society and sustainable development is strongly orientated towards action: its ambition is to respect the ethical principles of territorial sustainable development which are participation, global and balanced approach to territories and partnership. The idea is to improve a territory by increasing the connection between resea…