Urban sustainability is one of the most pressing and challenging tasks facing humanity today because cities are the primary sources of major environmental problems, the centers of economic and social developments, and home to more than half of the world population. While the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability are equally important in principle, the ecology of cities i...

If educators are to effectively prepare learners with the knowledge, skills, and values they will need for creating more sustainable places and communities, a transition must be made from transmissive teaching models to transformative learning processes. But how can courses be designed or redesigned so that they create opportunities for transformational sustainability learning, and how can ecol...

Sustainable production is the most important leading principle for the world markets where liberalisation exerts the greatest pressure on development. Numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the degree of sustainability on a national and local level. However, only little information for single farm assessment is currently available. The present paper introduces a tool called “Response-...

This study was carried out with groups of extractivists of mangrove oysters in the estuary of Cananéia, São Paulo State, Brazil, between the years 1999 and 2007 with the objective to evaluate and compare trends in the sustainability of this activity, in a multidimensional and integrated way, in social, economic, ecological, technological and ethical dimensions, using the method RAPFISH. The dif...

Eco village design is a new field of knowledge still under development. It will be the physical manifestation of the unfolding of the ecovillage dream held by so many. It is generally agreed that concept of sustainability should play an increasing role in future urban development world-wide. In order to ensure ecological sustainability, cities around the world have to decrease their environment...

The purpose of the present work is to work out an approach for the development of software and the choice of hardware structures when designing subsystems for automatic control of technological processes realized in living objects containing limited space (microenvironment). The subsystems for automatic control of the microenvironment (SACME) under development use the Devices for Air Prophylact...

Industrial ecology, promoted as a discipline of ‘sustainability science,’ applies ecological concepts to industrial systems to improve their sustainability. Concepts such as diversity, food webs and nutrient recycling have been investigated for industrial systems. Complex systems theory may also prove to be an appropriate framework for industrial systems research. This framework can identify th...

In 1990, fearing that unsustainable production and consumption patterns were aggravating poverty and undermining prospects for future generations, university leaders issued the Talloires Declaration, committing their institutions to fostering sustainability, which the Declaration describes as “an equitable and sustainable future for all humankind in harmony with nature”. They pledged to work to...

Urban vegetation provides ecological services that promote both the ecosystem integrity and human well-being of urban areas, and thus is critical to urban sustainability. As a key indicator of ecological health, net primary productivity (NPP) provides valuable information about the performance of urban ecosystem in response to the changes in urban climate and atmosphere in the 21st century. In ...