Special Issue "Advances in Sustainability: Selected Papers from 1st World Sustainability Forum"
Quicklinks
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2012
Special Issue Editor
Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Marc A. Rosen
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, Ontario, L1H 7K4, Canada
Website: http://www.engineering.uoit.ca/people/rosen
E-Mail: marc.rosen@uoit.ca
Phone: +1 905 721 8668, ext 5726
Fax: +1 905 721 3370
Interests: sustainable development; energy; exergy; efficiency; environmental impact; economics; ecology; sustainable engineering and design
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This special issue comprises selected papers from the Proceedings of the 1st World Sustainability Forum, an electronic conference that was held on sciforum in November 2011. Sustainability and sustainable development cover environmental, social and economic dimensions and require a multi-disciplinary approach in order to examine, explore and critically engage with issues and advances in these and related areas. The 1st World Sustainability Forum facilitated debates on theoretical and practical investigations, and allowed participants to "make a difference" through on-line discussions. Besides covering the three pillars of sustainable development, other areas were covered including renewable energy self-sufficiency, energy return-on-investment, governance and sustainability, sustainability assessment and policies, and remote sensing for sustainable management of land and biodiversity. Papers selected for this special issue were subject to a rigorous peer review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments and applications.
Prof. Dr. Marc A. Rosen
Guest Editor
Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 500 CHF (Swiss Francs).
English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.
Keywords
- Environmental Sustainability
- Economical Sustainability
- Social Sustainability
- Renewable Energy Self-Sufficiency
- Energy Return-on-Investment
- Governance and Sustainability
- Sustainability Assessment and Policies
- Remote Sensing for Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity General and Related Topics
Published Papers (8 papers)
|
Received: 1 February 2012; in revised form: 20 March 2012 / Accepted: 21 March 2012 / Published: 30 March 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (275 KB) | View HTML Full-text | Download PMC-XML Full-text
Abstract: Over the last several decades, it has become increasingly accepted that the term xenobiotic relates to environmental impact, since environmental xenobiotics are understood to be substances foreign to a biological system, which did not exist in nature before their synthesis by humans. In this context, xenobiotics are persistent pollutants such as dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls, as well as plastics and pesticides. Dangerous and unstable situations can result from the presence of environmental xenobiotics since their harmful effects on humans and ecosystems are often unpredictable. For instance, the immune system is extremely vulnerable and sensitive to modulation by environmental xenobitics. Various experimental assays could be performed to ascertain the immunotoxic potential of environmental xenobiotics, taking into account genetic factors, the route of xenobiotic penetration, and the amount and duration of exposure, as well as the wave shape of the xenobiotic. In this paper, we propose an approach for the analysis of xenobiotic metabolism using mathematical models and corresponding methods. This study focuses on a pattern depicting mathematically modeled processes of resonant absorption of a xenobiotic harmonic oscillation by an organism modulated as an absorbing oscillator structure. We represent the xenobiotic concentration degree through a spatial concentration vector, and we model and simulate the oscillating regime of environmental xenobiotic absorption. It is anticipated that the results could be used to facilitate the assessment of the processes of environmental xenobiotic absorption, distribution, biotransformation and removal within the framework of compartmental analysis, by establishing appropriate mathematical models and simulations.
|
|
Received: 22 February 2012; in revised form: 23 March 2012 / Accepted: 26 March 2012 / Published: 2 April 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (1202 KB) | View HTML Full-text | Download PMC-XML Full-text
Abstract: The use of biofuels to mitigate global carbon emissions is highly dependent on direct and indirect land use changes (LUC). The direct LUC (dLUC) can be accurately evaluated using remote sensing images. In this work we evaluated the dLUC of about 4 million hectares of sugarcane expanded from 2005 to 2010 in the South-central region of Brazil. This region has a favorable climate for rain-fed sugarcane, a great potential for agriculture expansion without deforestation, and is currently responsible for almost 90% of Brazilian’s sugarcane production. An available thematic map of sugarcane along with MODIS and Landast images, acquired from 2000 to 2009, were used to evaluate the land use prior to the conversion to sugarcane. A systematic sampling procedure was adopted and the land use identification prior to sugarcane, for each sample, was performed using a web tool developed to visualize both the MODIS time series and the multitemporal Landsat images. Considering 2000 as reference year, it was observed that sugarcane expanded: 69.7% on pasture land; 25.0% on annual crops; 0.6% on forest; while 3.4% was sugarcane land under crop rotation. The results clearly show that the dLUC of recent sugarcane expansion has occurred on more than 99% of either pasture or agriculture land.
 |
|
Received: 21 February 2012; in revised form: 19 March 2012 / Accepted: 27 March 2012 / Published: 11 April 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (309 KB) | View HTML Full-text | Download PMC-XML Full-text
Abstract: This paper questions why, despite the sustainable development concept having been prominent at an international level for well over 20 years, there is little to show by way of a transition to a sustainable world. Instead, in many ways, the situation is deteriorating. The paper critiques the mainstream sustainable development approach as advocated by business, and as is prominent in the political sphere, to consider if this is itself a key problem. The paper concludes that it is. Rather than helping society achieve needed change, this approach can create a false sense of progress that acts as a barrier to the more decisive action that is necessary to address the underlying drivers of humanity's unsustainable behaviours. Further, the paper proposes that the very act of pursuing mainstream sustainable development makes a sustainable world harder to achieve. A way forward for the business sector is proposed by it embracing a more transformational sustainable world approach in both its internal activities and in its advocacy in the broader public and political space.
|
Dexter V. L. Hunt, D. Rachel Lombardi, Stuart Atkinson, Austin R. G. Barber, Matthew Barnes, Christopher T. Boyko, Julie Brown, John Bryson, David Butler, Silvio Caputo, Maria Caserio, Richard Coles, Rachel F. D. Cooper, Raziyeh Farmani, Mark Gaterell, James Hale, Chantal Hales, C. Nicholas Hewitt, Lubo Jankovic, I. Jefferson, J. Leach, A. Rob MacKenzie, Fayyaz Ali Memon, Jon P. Sadler, Carina Weingaertner, J. Duncan Whyatt and Christopher D. F. Rogers
Received: 8 March 2012; in revised form: 26 March 2012 / Accepted: 30 March 2012 / Published: 20 April 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (481 KB) | View HTML Full-text | Download PMC-XML Full-text
Abstract: Future scenarios provide challenging, plausible and relevant stories about how the future could unfold. Urban Futures (UF) research has identified a substantial set (>450) of seemingly disparate scenarios published over the period 1997–2011 and within this research, a sub-set of >160 scenarios has been identified (and categorized) based on their narratives according to the structure first proposed by the Global Scenario Group (GSG) in 1997; three world types (Business as Usual, Barbarization, and Great Transitions) and six scenarios, two for each world type (Policy Reform—PR, Market Forces—MF, Breakdown—B, Fortress World—FW, Eco-Communalism—EC and New Sustainability Paradigm—NSP). It is suggested that four of these scenario archetypes (MF, PR, NSP and FW) are sufficiently distinct to facilitate active stakeholder engagement in futures thinking. Moreover they are accompanied by a well-established, internally consistent set of narratives that provide a deeper understanding of the key fundamental drivers (e.g., STEEP—Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental and Political) that could bring about realistic world changes through a push or a pull effect. This is testament to the original concept of the GSG scenarios and their development and refinement over a 16 year period.
|
|
Received: 14 March 2012; in revised form: 5 April 2012 / Accepted: 12 April 2012 / Published: 23 April 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (232 KB) | View HTML Full-text | Download PMC-XML Full-text
Abstract: Most of the land reforms of recent decades have followed an approach of “formalization and capitalization” of individual land titles (de Soto 2000). However, within the privatization agenda, benefits of unimproved land (such as land rents and value capture) are reaped privately by well-organized actors, whereas the costs of valorization (e.g., infrastructure) or opportunity costs of land use changes are shifted onto poorly organized groups. Consequences of capitalization and formalization include rent seeking and land grabbing. In developing countries, formal law often transpires to work in favor of the winners of the titling process and is opposed by the customary rights of the losers. This causes a lack of general acknowledgement of formalized law (which is made responsible for deprivation of livelihoods of vulnerable groups) and often leads to a clash of formal and customary norms. Countries may fall into a state of de facto anarchy and “de facto open access”. Encroachment and destruction of natural resources may spread. A reframing of development policy is necessary in order to fight these aberrations. Examples and evidence are provided from Cambodia, which has many features in common with other countries in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa in this respect.
|
|
Received: 29 March 2012; in revised form: 24 April 2012 / Accepted: 9 May 2012 / Published: 18 May 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (1069 KB) | View HTML Full-text | Download PMC-XML Full-text
Abstract: The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge spans 77 km along the Detroit River and western Lake Erie, and is the only unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System that is international. A key unit of the refuge is the 166-ha Humbug Marsh that represents the last kilometer of natural shoreline on the U.S. mainland of the river and Michigan’s only “Wetland of International Importance” designated under the 1971 International Ramsar Convention. Adjacent to Humbug Marsh is an 18-ha former industrial manufacturing site (now called the Refuge Gateway) that is being remediated and restored as an ecological buffer for Humbug Marsh and the future home of the refuge’s visitor center. Restoration and redevelopment activities have included: cleanup and capping of contaminated lands; daylighting a creek (i.e., deliberately exposing the flow of a creek that was historically placed underground in a culvert) and constructing a retention pond and emergent wetland to treat storm water prior to discharge to the Detroit River; restoring coastal wetland, riparian buffer, and upland habitats; and constructing two roads, hiking/biking trails, and a kayak/canoe landing to offer wildlife-compatible public uses that allow visitors to experience this internationally-recognized natural resource. This project has been described as transformational for the region by restoring an industrial brownfield into high quality wildlife habitat that expands the ecological buffer of a Ramsar site. Specific restoration targets for the site include: achieving a net gain of 6.5 ha of wetlands in a river that has lost 97% of its coastal wetlands to development; restoring 10.1 ha of upland buffer habitat; treating invasive Phragmites along 4 km of shoreline; and treatment of invasive plant species in 20.2 ha of upland habitats in Humbug Marsh. Further, the Refuge Gateway is being restored as a model of environmental sustainability for nearly seven million residents within a 45-minute drive. Key lessons learned include: reach broad-based agreement on a sustainability vision; identify and involve a key champion; establish core project delivery team; ensure up-front involvement of regulatory agencies; recruit and meaningfully involve many partners; expect the unexpected; practice adaptive management; place a priority on sound science-based decision making; ensure decision-making transparency; measure and celebrate successes, including benefits; and place a high priority on education and outreach.
 |
|
Received: 14 February 2012; in revised form: 12 April 2012 / Accepted: 12 May 2012 / Published: 22 May 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (202 KB) | View HTML Full-text | Download PMC-XML Full-text
Abstract: It seems intuitively clear that not all human endeavours warrant equal concern over the extent of their sustainability. This raises the question about what criteria might best serve for their prioritisation. We refute, on empirical and theoretical grounds, the counterclaim that sustainability should be of no concern regardless of the circumstances. Human security can serve as a source of criteria that are both widely shared and can be assessed in a reasonably objective manner. Using established classifications, we explore how four forms of sustainability (environmental, economic, social, and cultural) relate to the four pillars of human security (environmental, economic, sociopolitical, and health-related). Our findings, based on probable correlations, suggest that the criteria of human security allow for a reliable discrimination between relatively trivial incidences of unsustainable behavior and those that warrant widely shared serious concern. They also confirm that certain sources of human insecurity, such as poverty or violent conflict, tend to perpetuate unsustainable behavior, a useful consideration for the design of development initiatives. Considering that human security enjoys wide and increasing political support among the international community, it is to be hoped that by publicizing the close correlation between human security and sustainability greater attention will be paid to the latter and to its careful definition.
 |
|
Received: 20 February 2012; in revised form: 15 May 2012 / Accepted: 16 May 2012 / Published: 23 May 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (1942 KB) | View HTML Full-text | Download PMC-XML Full-text
Abstract: The Soy Moratorium is an initiative to reduce deforestation rates in the Amazon biome based on the hypothesis that soy is a deforestation driver. Soy planted in opened areas after July 24th, 2006 cannot be commercialized by the associated companies to the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (ABIOVE) and the National Association of Cereal Exporters (ANEC), which represent about 90% of the Brazilian soy market. The objective of this work is to present the evaluation of the fourth year of monitoring new soy plantations within the Soy Moratorium context. With the use of satellite images from the MODIS sensor, together with aerial survey, it was possible to identify 147 polygons with new soy plantations on 11,698 ha. This soy area represents 0.39% of the of the total deforested area during the moratorium, in the three soy producing states of the Amazon biome, and 0.6% of the cultivated soy area in the Amazon biome, indicating that soy is currently a minor deforestation driver. The quantitative geospatial information provided by an effective monitoring approach is paramount to the implementation of a governance process required to establish an equitable balance between environmental protection and agricultural production.
 |
Last update: 18 May 2012
