Sustainability

Water: Ecological Drivers

-Humans use freshwater -Three factors dictating how humans use freshwater in cities 1. Water Quality -Upstream users 2. Water Delivery -Infrastructure -Urban growth (impacts infrastructure→ delivery) 3. Availability/Access -Infrastructure -Climate -If one of the three is hindered→ we overuse/tap groundwater -Why do we tap groundwater?

Economic Sustainability: Dichotomy between economic growth and achieving human development

-Improving overall quality of life for large amounts of people -Education, Health, Safety, Security -Measuring general on quality of life instead of like GNP -How to prioritize the two, both product of the environment -How do we judge the success of an economy? -GNP/GDP or Human Development Indicators

Criteria: Resource Maintenance and Efficiency

Doing more with less--> recycling

Time Lag

(Amount of time it takes for something to take effect - impacts not immediately observable)

Cascading Effects

(chain where one effect causes another)

Feedback Loop

(continuous cycle where two factors impact one another) A system feeds into itself when an occurrence leads to a cause and effect chain that further drives the original occurrence

Thresholds/Tipping Points

(thresholds - point of not return - cannot return to equilibrium)

System Dynamics

-Interconnected -Dynamic- always changing -Interacting across scales of time and place -Tippling points (threshold of no return) -Cascading Effects -Feedback loops -Time lags

Social Ecological Systems

-Social Ecological Systems: Human and natural systems interacting -Ecosystem Services: Benefits provided to humans from the environment -Provisioning: Food, Water, Air, Fuel, Timber, Fiber, Medicine -Regulating: Climate, CO2, Flood, Erosion, Disease -Cultural: Recreation, Spiritual

Obesity: Complex Problem Breakdown

-"Understanding of the causal factors that contribute to the obesity epidemic has evolved over time" -"The problem used to be understood as "people eat too much and move too little" -"But this conceptualization did nothing to lead researchers to solving the problem" -Problems -Food that is less healthy is cheaper -Eating the wrong food -Genetics -Lack of education -Obesity Map (In Paper) -Food production highly influences other factors (food consumption) -Food consumption highly impacts physiology -Social Psychology highly impacts individual psychology -Physical activity of the environment highly impact individual activity -Arrows are mutually reinforcing and interrelated -Feedback loop- two factors cyclically drive each other -Individual physical activity <- → Physiology -Managing the problem -Setting goals and breaking it down -"Wicked problems such as obesity demand appropriate responses including recognition of the fact that contextual factors are important to the effectiveness of solutions" -What are contextual factors? -Is obesity a sustainability problem? -Food consumption impacts the environment -High fructose corn syrup—large industrial farms -Not good for the environment -Soil, water, land degradations -Economic: Benefits to farmers who grow unprofitable corn -Subsidies -Social: Low-income social groups are forced to rely on this "crap" -Equity issues -Political:

Assessment Criteria of Water

-Accessibility -Delivery -Quality

Environmental Sustainability of Food

-Agriculture is less resource efficient than industrial activity -Agriculture and food consumption is one of the most important drivers of environmental pressures -Environmental pressures: habitat change, climate change, fish depletion, water use, toxic emissions

Carrying Capacity

-Amount of a species an ecosystem can sustain -Less energy a species consumes- the more species carried by ecosystem -Cultural Carrying Capacity -Improvements in economic development = growth = more consumption and greater stress on the environment -Life style choices (Need v. Want) -Meat - more energy required, greater stress on environment -Humans have exceeded earth's carrying capacity -How are we able to sustain ourselves? -Earth Overshoot Day -Borrowing Resources from Future Generations -Idea that we value something we could have today over down the road -Discount the future value 50$ today > 300 $ in 10 years -Endowment: Principle: bag of money for over time, investing making interest and spending the interest each year, but we keep over spending interest and dipping into larger sum of environmental resources

Criteria: Socio-ecological civility and democratic government

-Bringing to the attention of elected officials -Group participation -Mobilizing collective action -Use system of government to get change

Water: Ecological Benefits

-Cheaper - reducing costs -Easy/ no risk- dependable for short term -Immediate relief -Not visible→ no panic-→ no political response -Different when you drain a river/lake and can see

Economic Sustainability: Economic growth and the maximization of wealth are not good measures of an economy -- debate

-China's economy has high growth and wealth, but not distributed well (strongly disagree with this statement) -Disagree: still need to be used to make basic measurements -Fluidity of wealth as a testament to better economy -Is this a political question? How we distribute resources is political question, while economic growth shows that the economy is healthy whether or not resources are distributed appropriately is a political question, doesn't mean economy isn't good -Is the purpose of an economy or economic growth to drive human development? Does having economic development guarantee better quality of life -Author view is that relying on markets is not enough for human development -Improving prosperity wont lead to human development, need political redistribution

Planetary Boundaries

-Climate Change-------------- exceeded -Stratospheric Ozone depletion -Ocean Acidification -Biodiversity Loss-----------exceeded: 6th great extinction -Land System Change -Global freshwater use -Chemical Pollution -Nitrogen Depletion---------exceeded -Phosphorus Depletion

Water Case Studies

-Commonalities -Drivers: over use of water + climate change (drought) -Poor infrastructure→ sewage system -Relationship between climate and resource use -Inefficiencies -Problems: Irrigation, Poor water quality, access -Impactson the aquifer- affects more people, wide distribution -Inefficiencies in water quality -Health implications -Widening gap between rich and poor -Access -Ecological consequences→ on rivers and aquifers -High costs of transporting water -Flooding (happening now in SC) -Solutions: Regulations and policies to adjust CLIMATE + OVERUSE= water problems

Food Sustainability: Where are you growing it?

-Compared environmental impact of UK dessert apples: -Imported -Emphasis on transportation -Sales occur at supermarkets- driving to supermarkets -Short v. Long supply chains -Emphasis on locally grown= environmentally friendly -Long supply chains require more energy consumption (imported products) -Carbon dioxide emissions= higher (long)

Benefits of Waste System

-Convenience -Existing infrastructure -Roads, Garbage trucks, trash cans, trash dump -Private interest profits -Existing jobs in waste management

Food Sustainability: How are you growing it?

-Cultivation practices -Industrial v. Independent? -Scale of farm -Larger farmers- fertilizers, irrigation all = more -Eutrophication: algae blooms in water supplies -Nitrogen planetary boundary already exceeded- farming -Organic v. Conventional? -Chemicals degrading soils, contaminating water resources -Water intensive? -Flood irrigation -Livestock: Humane? -Grass fed, cage free -Interspecies equity- animals deserve better -Fish: Sustainable yield? -Over fishing

Water: Ecological Impacts

-Draining water from ground water resources -Subsidence: land caved/collapse via sink hole -Architectural problems -Flooding -Costs of repair -Not safe -Water stress: running out of water -Environmental justice issues -Unequal distributions -Transporting water- costs -Declining water quality -Water becomes expensive- only rich get access

Food Sustainability: How are you transporting it?

-Energy to transport exceeds energy to cultivate -Homegrown and local sourcing more efficient -Regional and national distribution: Road > Rail -Higher impact (Road) -International Distribution (Air> Ship Impact)

Economic Sustainability:Redistribution of wealth and resources is necessary for an economy to promote human development -Debate

-Essentially; do we need to have an intervention in the economy to redistribute? -Whether government is the means to this end -Wealth as an incentive to competition and work -This level of intervention makes me uncomfortable -Poorer countries taking on the brunt of the problems caused by wealthy nations- redistributing the ill effects as well -Social class and issues of mobility -Redistributing moving forward: equal pay for equal work, but not redistribute through taxes- inefficiency -Ills of society distributed "unfairly" -Feedback cycle of how government intervening makes human agency less prominent then people help people less and then government needs to intervene more -What resources are we talking about redistributing? -Money -Capital: Education -Food -Access: Education, resources etc.

Problems

-Food subsidies (unintended consequences of helping farmers) -Access -Food desert -Preference -Costs v. Calories -Convenience/Time for preparing -Education- how to prepare

Criteria: Intergenerational Equity

-Future generations -Educating

Water: Ecological Solutions

-Harvest rainwater -Restrict use or conserve water -Ocean water -Desalination - removing salt from ocean and turn into fresh -Massive infrastructure investment -Reclaim the water→ Grey Water system -Reusing wastewater of the bathroom, running through green water and send it back to bathrooms -Grey = because its somewhat safe -Efficiencies in the system -Water no making it to where its supposed to be -Leakages in the infrastructure -Focus solutions based on what problems face specific cities -Increasing water availability solutions -Zero scaping- removing grass or any landscape of low water -Rainwater use -Desalination→ expensive -Water Quality -Sanitation efforts -Rain washes away pollutants (storm runoff management) -Water Delivery -Make system more efficient -Infrastructure -All solutions need money

Criteria: Socio-ecological system integrity

-Human relationships with the environment and ecological systems -Maintaining long-term integrity -

Food: environmental consequences/impacts

-Land use change, Energy use, climate change, fish depletion, water use, toxic emissions, air quality, soil quality, water quality -Still need to increase food production for more people without raising impacts and negative impacts -Climate Change: total amount of carbon admissions- transportation (mode v. miles) includes food production

Food Sustainability: What are you growing?

-Livestock -50% of global land, water, soil used to feed animals, not people -18% of global GHGs (greenhouse gas) from livestock production -Meat production expected to increase due to growth of population and affluence -Comparing environmental impact of: -Lifecycle assessment -Reproduction rate, efficiency of feeding, methane -Beef, Pork, Chicken, Milk, Eggs -Land use: beef requires most land -Energy use: beef requires most -Global warming: methane production- beef -Beef largest environmental impact -Chicken and pork appear to be more environmentally friendly -What about cereal production?? -Food supply of livestock -Hogs and chickens eat high amount of cereals and grains -We would need more agricultural production of cereal or take some from people and give to live stock or increase land use -Health implications of eating too much meat -Environmental consequences of too much meat

Food Sustainability: Drivers

-Meat consumption →→→ → Meat production -Geographically -Feed efficiencies -Culture -CH4 emissions -Ethics -Reproduction rates -Wealth -Cultivation methods -Chemical inputs -Water intensity -Operational scale -Sustainable yield? Population growth -Transportation/Distribution -Location of production -Methods of transportation -Global Markets -Ethics -Wealth Problem: Environmental impacts of agriculture and food consumption

Place Based Knowledge (Feature of Sustainable Development)

-Meeting local perspective -Problem: Spatially and Temporally embedded -Cant apply solutions without knowing local conditions -Solve big problems→ think small scale -How to translate local→ national → global

Peak Water Limits

-Peak resource production - Hit peak- then production goes down -Point where it becomes to costly to access -Comparing water and oil -Renewability→ Substitute -Oil - we can find other energy sources -We cannot substitute water, but water is renewable -Renewable water: river, rain -Nonrenewable: Aquifer (underground rain water) -Takes too long to replenish -Peak ecological water

Drivers of Waste

-Population Changes (demographic changes) -Changes in waste composition -Market demand for solid waste -Selection of disposal sites -Industrialization→ relocation to urban centers -Introduction of incinerations -International trade of solid waste -Public health

Criteria: Precaution and Adaptation

-Predicting uncertainty- knowing what to look for in change -Effective monitoring -Flexibility

Multidisciplinary (Feature of Sustainable Development)

-Problems are diverse and complex -Solutions requiring diverse perspective and expertise to cope with complexity -Benefits & Challenges -More well rounded -Tech expertise in other fields -Breadth v. Depth

Trans disciplinary (Feature of Sustainable Development)

-Requires participation of all stakeholders -Researchers, public and private, civil society etc. -Difference between Trans and Multi disciplinary -Includes people directly affected, who has a stake -Sectors instead of academic disciplinary

Resilience

-Resilient: Systems ability to withstanding disturbances and changes -Independent farmers were not resilient, they were vulnerable

Case Study of Phoenix : Environmental Injustice

-Root Causes: -Great Depression -Racism -Segregation -Lack of Planning -Unregulated land use -Drivers -Land use patterns: unfairly regulated (economic) -Hazardous land use (reinforcing arrows) -Industrial growth and land use -Decreased land value- increase stigmatization -Problems: Environmental Racism -Downstream Impacts -Pollution (air, water) -Cheaper land -Toxic Chemicals -Noise pollution -High-related death -high unemployment -Poverty -Is this sustainability problem? -Socially sustainable community?

Systems Perspective (Feature of Sustainable Development)

-Scale: Local→ global -Dynamic between nature and society -Complex interconnected problems

Food Security (Supermarkets, Convenience Stores, Restaurants) Impacts of Access

-Supermarkets -Low income, minority communities less access to supermarkets -Better access to supermarkets is related to reduce risk for obesity -Convenience Stores -More convenience stores, higher obesity -50% fewer convenience stores in higher income areas -Restaurants -More fast food restaurants in low-income areas -Restaurants in higher income neighborhoods offer more healthy options

Impacts of Waste

-This is a problem because of the impacts/consequences of too much waste -Run off from trash dump→ contamination -Air pollution from incineration (methane)→ climate change? -Land use -Social justice of "not in my backyard" -Soil/Land/water degradation -Leachate -Acid Rain -Cost of Disposal -Transportation, Sorting, Construction, Maintenance -Decreased property value ohio -Production of items from virgin resources -Cost of energy and resources and expenditure of energy

Complexity

-What are general themes? -Trying to fix problems before we understand them -Managing instead of solving -Incorporate all stakeholders- so many people involved makes more complex -Unintended consequences -What is the take home message? -Reflecting on the problem before jumping to solutions -Instead of focusing on one element- focus on the whole picture -Stakeholders -Interdisciplinary -What does this mean for solving sustainability problems? -Sustainability problems incorporate all social, economic and political elements and must be attacked from all angles without jumping to conclusions

Pride and Sense of Place (Indicators of Social Sustainability)

-What does this mean? -Attachment to where you live -Investment in the people -Infrastructure and visual -Furman pride in beautiful campus -Why Important? -Fosters better relationships and leads to more participation

Safety and Security (Indicator of Social Sustainability)

-What does this mean? -Crime reduction -Trust -Street lights, windows -Neighborhood watch -Why important? -Facilitates participation and retention rates improve

Social interactions and Networking (Indicator of Social Sustainability)

-What does this mean? -Relations with neighbors -Beyond friend groups- sense of community -Why Important? -Promotes better relations and safety

Community Stability (Indicators of Social Sustainability)

-What does this mean? -Retention Rates over time, consistency -Build better relationships -Why Important? -Improves sense of place and pride

Equitable Access (Indicator of Social Sustainability)

-What does this mean? -Same opportunities -Distribution (fair) -Education and Training -Housing (decent) -Public Services -Recreation and green space -Why Important? -Prevents disparity and more opportunities increases livelihoods and encourages people to continue to live there

Participation in Group (Indicator of Social Sustainability)

-What does this mean? -Voting -Book club -Engagement in community -Use of Public Forum -Neighborhood sports team -Investment in the group -Why Important? -Participation is an indication of socially sustainable community because it shows that people want to live there and fosters better relationship and investment in the community

Is Phoenix a socially sustainable community?

1. Equitable Access -Deliberately unequal because zoning goes out of way to place industry there- factories -Racism 2. Social Interaction/Networks in Community -Violence doesn't foster social interaction 3. Participation in Collective Groups -Participation in gangs- not positive 4. Community Stability -Stuck? What is turnover like? 5. Pride/ Sense of Place -Nothing there to give them pride, then reinforcing cycle of degrading their own land 6. Safety and Security -Crime rates and gang related activity, lack of opportunity= poverty

Indicators of Social Sustainability

1. Equitable Access 2. Pride and Sense of Place 3. Community Stability 4.Social Interactions and Networking 5. Participation in Groups 6. Safety and Security

Categories of Drivers

1. Legislation and Regulation -Laws, codes, regulations -Pressure on environment through each part of the system -Collection systems -Tracking waste effects on environment -Where to dump trash -Limits -Public Health implications -Rules and regulations on how we collect our trash -Enforcement mechanisms → who oversees that? -Local, state, regional, organization? 2. Technological developments and institutional -Technology drives waste generation -Technology drivers waste management -Tech moving faster than ability to understand effects -Methane for fuel→ helping or hurting? -Part of the problem and the solutions -Urbanization and industrialization -Driving production→ consumption → exacerbate waste problems -Tracking and analyzing 3.Socio-economic drivers -Public Health -Population trends -Public awareness -Market demands -Industrialization -Population relocation to urban centers -Public participation- in waste production initiatives -Willingness to recycle -Not in my backyard→ aesthetics -Environmental justice -Impact- driven by affluence -Improving socio economic status increased impact 4. Regional Drivers -International trade of solid waste -Waste we produce - recyclables are sorted and shipped out -Countries (china) that can't produce petroleum -Creating incentives for recycling -Creating markets -Local action and decisions dictated by markets (consumer goods)

Four Dimensions of Wicked Problems

1. No definitive formulation of the problem exists -lacks specificity, generalized to a "tagline" 2. Its solution is not true or false, but rather better or worse -Can't be achieved, only progress made 3. Stakeholders have radically different frames of reference concerning the problem and are often passionate in their position -Business interests v. environmental interests 4. Systems components and cause/effect relationships are uncertain or radically changing

Explain how climate change is a "Wicked Problem"

1. No definitive formulation of the problem exists -lacks specificity, generalized to a "tagline" Climate change example: -Economic and Complexity -Lack of agreement of what the problem is 2. Its solution is not true or false, but rather better or worse -Can't be achieved, only progress made -Climate Change example: -Varying changes of degrees and timeframes -Investment in research development -Fuel consumption subsidies -Land use -Proposed idea 4 degree v. 2 degree, not fixing just improving 3. Stakeholders have radically different frames of reference concerning the problem and are often passionate in their position -Climate change example: -Putting price on greenhouse emissions, research and policies -International cooperation -Stakeholders include various countries -Economic v. environmental -Economists: look at problem in terms of tradeoffs 4. Systems components and cause/effect relationships are uncertain or radically changing -Climate change example: -Implementation -Cause and effect of climate change and global warming -Helping underdeveloped countries will increase emissions

Problem Driven and Solution Oriented (Feature of Sustainable Development)

1. Problem Driven & Solution Oriented -Inspired by countless problems -Seeks to create transformative change (getting at real cause) -Uniqueness about being solution oriented -Starting with the end in mind -Action oriented beyond studying problem

Key Features of Sustainable Development

1. Problem Driven, Solution Oriented 2. Multi and Trans disciplinary 3. Systems Perspective 4. Place based knowledge

Eight Criteria of Sustainability

1. Socio-ecological system integrity 2. Livelihood Sufficiency and Opportunity 3. Intragenerational Equity 4. Intergenerational Equity 5.Socio-ecological civility and democratic government 6.Precaution and Adaptation 7.Immediate and Long Term Integration 8. Resource Maintenance and Efficiency

Four Questions of the Environmental Impact of FOOD

1. What are you growing? 2. How are you growing it? 3. Where are you growing it? 4. How are you transporting it?

Define a Wicked Problem

A problem that is not solvable but manageable -Two Outcomes to manage: -Systems outcomes: Tangible change across economic, social, environment and how we make changes matters as much as making the changes -Trajectory of the sustainability- putting things on positive track -Process outcomes: Participatory process where all stakeholders are involved -More likely to be accepted and implemented -Diverse knowledge background -Societal problems different from natural science problems -Ill-defined, rely on political judgment -Are "ambiguously complex, value-laden and unsolvable in any conventional sense" -Need new knowledge to be successful -Conflicting backgrounds

Adaptability

Able to adjust oneself readily to different conditions

Syrian Civil War (Sustainability Problem)

Climate Conflict contributed to start of War Interconnected: Env. Issue of drought led to social issue of poverty and agricultural decline Dynamic: system changed over time Scales: problem spread across country over time (dessert to Daraa to other cities to refugees affecting other countries) drought 2006-2011, war 2011, refugees now Tipping point: Point at which farmers could no longer farm in drought, government abuse caused people to turn against government Cascading effects: All of them - drought led to farmers having to infiltrate big cities which led to water shortages there, protesting led to arrest and abuse which lead to spread of protest and abuse which led to civil war Feedback loop: protest and violence loop led to Civil War Time lags: drought existed for five years before protesting began, it has taken until now for the world to respond to refugee crisis

Complex Problems

Complex problems involved many stakeholders and elements of society including social political and economic ramifications. Problems tend to take a long time to manage and are difficult to solve involving more vulnerable elements of society. In order to manage these problems the problem must be thoroughly defined with involvement of interdisciplinary studies and actors and then changes must be evaluated consistently and no details can be given. 1. Analyze a problem 2. Envision a Sustainable Future 3. Research strategies to achieve that future 4. Test Strategies

Show ecological system: whether resilient, and why its a sustainability issue

Example: Latin America Farming Case Study

Criteria: Immediate and Long term integration

Feedback loop, unintended consequences -Balanced- all criteria incorporated -Not just picking or being selective

Net Primary Productivity

Gross primary productivity minus the energy used by the primary producers for respiration

Food Desert

Locations that match high poverty and lacking supermarkets -Urban Areas: More than one mile from a super market -Rural Areas: More than ten miles from a super market

Anthropocene

Human impact the greatest indicator -Post 1950 (Industrial Revolution)

Impact Equation

I=PAT (Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology)

Sustainable Development

Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs for the future and preserving life systems

Criteria: Intragenerational Equity

Not the future- people now/present -Gap between rich and poor

Problems Pertaining to Carrying Capacity

Overpopulation, Misdistribution, technological?

Water: Ecological Problem

Overused Groundwater

Three Categories of Ecosystem Services

Provisioning, Regulating, Cultural

Criteria: Livelihood Sufficency and Opportunity

Social equity: everyone has access to knowledge and service (how to recycle) -Equitable Access -Access to consumption

Holocene

Stability only period that can sustain people -"The Quadruple Squeeze" -Population Growth, Climate Dilemma, Ecosystem Decline and Surprise

Ecological Footprint

The amount of biologically productive land and sea necessary to supply the resources human population consumes and to absorb the waste that population produces.

Nonlinear Systems

The output of the system is not directly proportional to the input Most systems are nonlinear

The Three Pillars of Sustainability

Three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social

The Triple Bottom Line

Three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social

Food Security

When all people at all times have access to sufficient safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life -World Food Summit 1996 -Access to food, quality of food, activity-→ taking a holistic perspective -US Food Insecure: A person who experienced hunger for at least one day in the past year -Place matters→ Clint smith -Teacher in South DC -Students don't have access to healthy foods/grocery stores -Guns and violence keep children from playing outside (activity) -Healthy is predominantly wealthy -Environmental justice issues -Urban landscapes impact on access to good food -Compared to a desert→ a food desert

Transformational Change

change in which the organization moves to a radically different, and sometimes unknown, future state

Ecosystem Services

services we get from functioning ecosystems like clean water, soil, air, habitat, timber