Transformations to create more sustainable social-ecological systems are urgently needed. Structural change is a feature of transformations of social-ecological systems that is of critical importance but is little understood. Here, we propose a framework for conceptualising and modelling sustainability transformations based on adaptive networks. Adaptive networks focus attention on the interpla...

“Environmental flows” is a research discipline that emphasizes freshwater allocation in rivers to sustain desired ecological conditions and human well-being. The basis for environmental flow requirements has traditionally relied on hydrological and ecological data. Contemporary methods focus on detailed hydro-ecological relationships within river ecosystems; however, there is currently no struc...

Not yet two decades after the publication of Our Common Future, the world’s political and environmental landscape has changed significantly. Nonetheless, we argue that the concept and practice of sustainable development (SD)–as guiding institutional principle, as concrete policy goal, and as focus of political struggle–remains salient in confronting the multiple challenges of this new global or...

This paper presents a spatial analysis of likely/potential hotspots of sustainability issues in Mainland China through an empirical investigation of patterns of ecological vulnerability in and of China’s megaregions. To be specific, this paper assesses the level of patterns of the ecological vulnerability of 16 megaregions through an indicator system, which includes soil erosion, desertificatio...

degradation of zagros forests has been continuing since a long time ago because of traditional and often improper exploitations due to poverty, unemployment, and livelihood. in this study, in order to reduce forest degradation and improve sustainability, the feasibility of multipurpose using of zagros forest was assessed in baneh forests by using gis, rs and ahp. all of the possible land-uses a...

Almost all cities in the United States have initiated efforts to become more sustainable. Theoretically, sustainability encompasses social equity, as well as ecological and economic systems. In practice, many cities are unsure about the role of equity in sustainability planning. With greater knowledge of how urban sustainability initiatives affect social equity, public officials will better be ...

Consider the problem of protecting endangered species by selecting patches of land to be used for conservation purposes. Typically, the availability of patches changes over time, and recommendations must be made dynamically. This is a challenging prototypical example of a sequential optimization problem under uncertainty in computational sustainability. Existing techniques do not scale to probl...

I present a general mathematical modeling framework that can provide a foundation for the study of sustainability in social- ecological systems (SESs). Using basic principles from feedback control and a sequence of specific models from bioeconomics and economic growth, I outline several mathematical and empirical challenges associated with the study of sustainability of SESs. These challenges a...

While acknowledging the need for “sustainability,” this paper summarizes the problems that have been encountered in our understanding and use of this concept. It explores the efforts of others to define the concept within the context of specific disciplinary areas and sets forth a proposal for a basic understanding of the term “environmental sustainability” as an expansion of our common percept...

sustainable coastal fishing management includes different components and factors. one of the practical initiatives to achieve sustainability is to evaluate or measure different criteria of sustainability and measuring sustainability of each system needs its own indicators. this study aimed to investigate different criteria of sustainable coastal fishing management in beach seine cooperatives (b...