Safeguarding Our Common Future PDF Download

Author: Ingrid Leman Stefanovic
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791446515
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Utilizes Heidegger in rethinking common environmental paradigms.

Author: Simon Bell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317200322
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 568

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Book Description
This handbook provides researchers and students with an overview of the field of sustainability indicators (SIs) as applied in the interdisciplinary field of sustainable development. The editors have sought to include views from the center ground of SI development but also divergent ideas which represent some of the diverse, challenging and even edgy observations which are prominent in the wider field of SI thinking. The contributions in this handbook: • clearly set out the theoretical background and history of SIs, their origins, roots and initial goals • expand on the disciplines and modalities employed to develop SIs of various kinds • assess the various ways in which SI data are gathered and the availability (over space and time) and quality issues that surround them • explore the multiplex world of SIs as expressed in agencies around the world, via examples of SI practice and the lessons that have emerged from them • critically review the progress that SIs have made over the last 30 years • express the divergence of views which are held about the value of SIs, including differing theories on their efficacy, efficiency and ethics • explore the frontier of contemporary SI thinking, reviewing ante/post and systemic alternatives This multidisciplinary and international handbook will be of great interest to researchers, students and practitioners working in sustainability research and practice.

Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264173757
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
This book examines two key aspects of developing environmental indicators for agriculture: identification and design of suitable indicators and how governments might use them for policy purposes.

Author: Stephen Morse
Publisher: Earthscan
ISBN: 1849771715
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The use of numbers to condense complex systems into easily digested 'bites' of information is very much in fashion. At one level they are intended to enhance transparency, accountability and local democracy, while at another they provide a means of enhancing performance. However, all indicators suffer from the same basic problem that, ironically, is also their biggest advantage - condensing something highly complex into a few simple numbers. Love them or hate them, there is no denying that people use indicators to make decisions. Indices and Indicators explores the use of indicators within the field of human development. Part I provides a brief outline of the contested meaning of 'development' and how indices and indicators have been used as means of testing the realization of these development visions in practice in a range of institutional contexts. Part II discusses the limitations of such indices and indicators and illustrates how they are dependent upon the vision of development adopted. The book also suggests how indices and indicators can best be employed and presented. Given our overwhelming reliance on indices and indicators for measuring progress, directing policy and allocating resources, this book is essential core reading for academics, undergraduate and post-graduate students in social science, economics, geography and development studies as well as development practitioners, policy-makers and donor and international funding agencies.

Author: Simon Bell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113656134X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Chapter 3: Systemic Sustainability Analysis and Prospective; Introduction; The importance of the subjective; Background to CAMP Malta; Technical specification for SSA; Familiarizing the Maltese SSA team; What are SSA and SPSA and how are they different?; SPSA and Blue Plan approaches; Chapter 4: Doing SPSA: Some Reflective Experience; Introduction; Stage 1: Find out how things are: reflection; Stage 2: Understand the context for sustainability indicators: reflection/connection; Stage 3: Gather the stakeholders in the sustainability indicator process: reflection/connection.

Author: Qihao Weng
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1498700721
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Driven by the societal needs and improvement in sensor technology and image processing techniques, remote sensing has become an essential geospatial tool for understanding the Earth and managing Human-Earth interactions. Remote Sensing for Sustainability introduces the current state of the art remote sensing knowledge integral for monitoring the world’s natural resources and environments, managing exposure to natural disasters and man-made risks, and helping understand the sustainability and productivity of natural ecosystems. Bridging the gap between remote sensing and sustainability science this book examines theories and methods as well as practical applications of sustainable development for cities using remote sensing; focuses on remote sensing methods and techniques for sustainable natural resources with emphasize on forests; answers questions on how and what the remote sensing methods and techniques can do for the sustainability of environmental systems; and examines the issues of energy use and sustainable energy sources using remote sensing technology in countries such as Germany, China, the U.S, drawing on case studies to demonstrate the applicability of remote sensing techniques. This comprehensive guide, which can serve to professors, researchers, and students alike, takes in consideration the United Nations set of sustainable development goals and intends to contribute to the GEO’s Strategic Plan by addressing and exemplifying a number of societal benefit areas of remote sensing data sets, methods, and techniques for sustainable development.

Author: Pamela A. Wright
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Forest management
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description

Author: The The Worldwatch Institute
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1610910451
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
In the 2012 edition of its flagship report, Worldwatch celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the 1992 Earth Summit with a far-reaching analysis of progress toward building sustainable economies. Written in clear language with easy-to-read charts, State of the World 2012 offers a new perspective on what changes and policies will be necessary to make sustainability a permanent feature of the world's economies. The Worldwatch Institute has been named one of the top three environmental think tanks in the world by the University of Pennsylvania's Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program.

Author: Sarah E. Fredericks
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135045674
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The indexes used by local, national, and international governments to monitor progress toward sustainability do not adequately align with their ethical priorities and have a limited ability to monitor and promote sustainability. This book gives a theoretical and practical demonstration of how ethics and technical considerations can aid the development of sustainability indexes to overcome this division in the literature and aid sustainability initiatives. Measuring and Evaluating Sustainability develops and illustrates methods of linking technical and normative concerns during the development of sustainability indexes. Specifically, guidelines for index development are combined with a pragmatic theory of ethics that enables ethical collaboration among people of diverse ethical systems. Using the resulting method of index development, the book takes a unique applied turn as it ethically evaluates multiple sustainability indexes developed and used by the European Commission, researchers, and local communities and suggests ways to improve the indexes. The book emphasizes justice as it is the most prevalent ethical principle in the sustainability literature and most neglected in index development. In addition to the ethical principles common to international sustainability initiatives, the book also employs a variety of religious and philosophical traditions to ensure that the ethical evaluations performed in the text align with the ideals of the communities using the indexes and foster cross-cultural ethical dialogue. This volume is an invaluable resource for students, researchers and professionals working on sustainability indicators and sustainability policy-making as well as interdisciplinary areas including environmental ethics; environmental philosophy; environmental or social justice; ecological economics; businesses sustainability programs; international development and environmental policy-making.

Author: Sandra Caeiro
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3319023756
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
This book contributes to debates on current sustainability practices, with a focus on assessment tools as applied in higher education institutions. These institutions are challenged to carry out management, research, and teaching, and to create settings that allow developing new competencies to address the complex global environmental, social, cultural, and economic pressures with which current and future generations are confronted. The first chapters discuss issues of sustainability in higher education, namely the role of universities in promoting sustainability and the emergent fields of sustainability science and education for sustainable development and how to integrate and motivate sustainability into the university. Subsequent chapters present examples of sustainability assessment tools specifically developed for higher education institutions, such as the AISHE – Auditing Instrument for Sustainability in Higher Education, the GASU – Graphical Assessment of Sustainability in Universities too, the STAUNCH – Sustainability tool for Auditing Universities Curricula in Higher Education. The use of other integrated tools are also presented. The papers have adopted a pragmatic approach, characterized by conceptual descriptions, including sustainability assessment and reorienting the curricula, on the one hand, and practical experiences on the other, with good practices from different edges of the world. Sustainability Assessment Tools in Higher Education Institutions will be of interest to graduate student, lecturers, researchers, and those setting university policy.