Environmental Management and Governance: Approaches to Hazards and Sustainability to Socio-Ecological Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Global environmental changes and related hazards are universal drivers and multipliers of risk that shape dynamic interactions among livelihood, multi-dimensional poverty and vulnerability and therefore have differential consequences. The impacts on people of different geographies who are the most vulnerable and marginalized need to be evaluated, documented and reported to understand the mechanisms behind these interactions and to thus prepare for and adapt to these changes. Moreover, how the dynamics between urban areas with megatrends and small towns shape and counter the ill-impacts of hazards needs to be analyzed to prepare for future developments that could affect the sustainability of social and ecological systems. The linkages among ecosystem services; the characteristics of social systems required for a means of living, i.e., capabilities, skills and assets (resources, availability and accessibility); and the institutional supports would facilitate and promote livelihood resilience in the face of global environmental change and related hazards. Strategies; frameworks; mechanisms; and social, biological and engineering solutions for coping with, adapting to and mitigating multi-hazards are needed to facilitate sustainability. An empirical analysis of the problem through the lens of integrated social, ecological and economic dimensions based on a multi-disciplinary approach would lead to tailor-made solutions. These are pre-requisites for environmental management and governance, thereby ensuring sustainable socio-ecological systems.

This Special Issue aims to compile original research papers focused on theoretical or empirical analyses of vulnerable systems and those related to the assessment of vulnerability, risk, and sustainability of socio-ecological systems under hazards. The main goal of this Special Issue is advancing our understanding of environmental management and governance for the sustainability of socio-ecological systems that are under the impacts of global environmental change and related hazards. This Special Issue welcomes scholarly work from across disciplines such as vulnerability and risk assessment; environmental management strategies; and governance initiatives for hazard management in various geographies, regions, socio-ecological systems and sectors.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Vulnerability and risk framing in socio-ecological systems (SES);
• Multi-hazard risk management framework for achieving sustainability in SES;
• Empirical evaluation of risks under multi-hazards conditions in SES;
• Metrics and measures for multi-hazard risk assessment for urban and small-town settlers;
• Climate-led hazard risk assessment and sustainability in informal settlements;
• Integration of vertical–horizontal governance for risk mitigation in SES;
• Environmental management and hazard-resilient pathways in SES.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Rajiv Pandey
Prof. Dr. Pawan K Joshi
Dr. Arun Jyoti Nath
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind 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 semimonthly 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 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• coping capacity
• multi-hazards
• resilience
• resilient systems
• risk mitigation
• societal response
• vertical–horizontal policy integration