Sustainability Science : The Emerging Paradigm and the Urban Environment

The object of this book is to highlight how the nascent field of sustainability science is addressing a key challenges for scientists; that is, understanding the workings of complex systems especially when humans are involved. A consistent thread in the sustainability science movement is the wide acknowledgement that greater degrees of integration across what are now segmented dimensions of extant Science and Technology systems will be a key factor in matching the most appropriate science and technology solutions to specific sustainability problems in specific places.

A new paradigm for ‘use-inspired’ research, informed decision making and development of science-based policy is emerging at the very heart of the global sustainability transition. Sustainability science attempts to unravel the complexities of the coupled Human-Environment System and address the core sustainability challenges of the 21^st century:

• Reconciling society’s development goals with the planet’s environmental limits

• Understanding the fundamental character of interactions between nature and society

• Advancing the social and technological knowledge related to sustainability, and using such knowledge for action

• Balancing social and environmental well-being, quality of life, and equity with wise-management and conservation of natural resources

The topics in this book focus on emerging research and policy in, a) sustainability science, b) the ecology of cities, c) landscape ecology – scale, spatial patterns, organizational levels, and ecological processes, and d) related topics in resource exploitation and management, the valuation of natural and social capital, habitat and biodiversity conservation, social learning, ecosystem based management, and integrated watershed-coastal zone management.