scholarly journals Opportunities and Challenges for the Sustainability of Lakes and Reservoirs in Relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long T. Ho ◽  
Peter L. M. Goethals

Emerging global threats, such as biological invasions, climate change, land use intensification, and water depletion, endanger the sustainable future of lakes and reservoirs. To deal with these threats, a multidimensional view on the protection and exploitation of lakes and reservoirs is needed. The holistic approach needs to contain not just the development of economy and society but also take into account the negative impacts of this growth on the environment, from that, the balance between the three dimensions can be sustained to reach a sustainable future. As such, this paper provides a comprehensive review on future opportunities and challenges for the sustainable development of lakes and reservoirs via a critical analysis on their contribution to individual and subsets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently, lakes and reservoirs are key freshwater resources. They play crucial roles in human societies for drinking water provision, food production (via fisheries, aquaculture, and the irrigation of agricultural lands), recreation, energy provision (via hydropower dams), wastewater treatment, and flood and drought control. Because of the (mostly) recent intensive exploitations, many lakes and reservoirs are severely deteriorated. In recent years, physical (habitat) degradation has become very important while eutrophication remains the main issue for many lakes and ponds worldwide. Besides constant threats from anthropogenic activities, such as urbanization, industry, aquaculture, and watercourse alterations, climate change and emerging contaminants, such as microplastics and antimicrobial resistance, can generate a global problem for the sustainability of lakes and reservoirs. In relation to the SDGs, the actions for achieving the sustainability of lakes and reservoirs have positive links with the SDGs related to environmental dimensions (Goals 6, 13, 14, and 15) as they are mutually reinforcing each other. On the other hand, these actions have direct potential conflicts with the SDGs related to social and economic dimensions (Goals 1, 2, 3 and 8). From these interlinkages, we propose 22 indicators that can be used by decision makers for monitoring and assessing the sustainable development of lakes and reservoirs.

Author(s):  
Andrew Harmer ◽  
Jonathan Kennedy

This chapter explores the relationship between international development and global health. Contrary to the view that development implies ‘good change’, this chapter argues that the discourse of development masks the destructive and exploitative practices of wealthy countries at the expense of poorer ones. These practices, and the unregulated capitalist economic system that they are part of, have created massive inequalities between and within countries, and potentially catastrophic climate change. Both of these outcomes are detrimental to global health and the millennium development goals and sustainable development goals do not challenge these dynamics. While the Sustainable Development Goals acknowledge that inequality and climate change are serious threats to the future of humanity, they fail to address the economic system that created them. Notwithstanding, it is possible that the enormity and proximity of the threat posed by inequality and global warming will energise a counter movement to create what Kate Raworth terms ‘an ecologically safe and socially just space’ for the global population while there is still time.


Author(s):  
Dr. Basanta Kalita

The SDGs agenda is the outcome of a series of international conferences on the issue of environmental sustainability. A principle of common and differentiated responsibility was endorsed by the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992) and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20 (2012). The political commitments from the world leaders were confirmed during the 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development held in Addis Ababa in July 2015 for a common policy on sustainable development. The goals are broad based and interdependent. Finally the Paris Declaration on Climate Change (2016) paved the way for the adoption of a comprehensive list of goals to be achieved by 2030. Each of the 17 sustainable development goals has a list of targets which are measured with indicators and are interdependent. The present study will be confined to the 6th goal which is ensuring “Clean water and Sanitation” in the Indian context. KEYWORDS: SDGs agenda, Climate Change, employment, sanitation services


Author(s):  
Caroline Mwongera ◽  
Chris M. Mwungu ◽  
Mercy Lungaho ◽  
Steve Twomlow

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) focuses on productivity, climate-change adaptation, and mitigation, and the potential for developing resilient food production systems that lead to food and income security. Lately, several frameworks and tools have been developed to prioritize context-specific CSA technologies and assess the potential impacts of selected options. This study applied a mixed-method approach, the climate-smart agriculture rapid appraisal (CSA-RA) tool, to evaluate farmers’ preferred CSA technologies and to show how they link to the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The chapter examines prioritized CSA options across diverse study sites. The authors find that the prioritized options align with the food security and livelihood needs of smallholder farmers, and relate to multiple sustainable development goals. Specifically, CSA technologies contribute to SDG1 (end poverty), SDG2 (end hunger and promote sustainable agriculture), SDG13 (combating climate change), and SDG15 (life on land). Limited awareness on the benefits of agriculture technologies and the diversity of outcomes desired by stakeholders’ present challenges and trade-offs for achieving the SDGs. The CSA-RA provides a methodological approach linking locally relevant indicators to the SDG targets.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1(J)) ◽  
pp. 22-32
Author(s):  
Abiodun Olusola Omotayo

In the developing nations of the world, poor gross domestic product growth has shown serious vacuum to be filled in order to achieve the sustainable development goals. In that regard, this research article intends to contribute to the sustainable development goals of the United Nation’s goal by explaining the rural food insecurity in the light of climate change dynamic in some selected rural communities of Limpopo Province, South Africa. The data employed in the study were collected from 120 randomly selected rural household heads. Data were analysed with descriptive (frequency, mean etc.) and inferential statistics (Principal component Analysis (PCA), Tobit and Probit Regression) which were properly fitted (P<0.05) for the set research objectives. Descriptive results indicate that the average age of the respondents was 52 years with 60% of the household heads being married and a mean household size of 5.The study concluded that there is climate change effect and food insecurity in the study area and therefore recommended among others that the government of South Africa should endeavour to implement a more rural focused food securityclimate change policies in order to relieve the intensity of food insecurity situations among these disadvantaged rural dwellers of the province as well as to entrench a policy of long term development of agriculture. Finally, the study emphasized that the rural farming households should be enlightened through proper extension services to carry out climate change adaptation and mitigation measures in alleviating the food insecurity situation in the rural communities of the province. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Indra Jaya Wiranata ◽  
Khairunnisa Simbolon

<p>Global policies on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address several aspects of environmental life and climate change. There are still challenges that many regions do not pursue the achievement of sustainable development goals which means that SDGs cannot simply and automatically be achieved in several regions due to different contexts and different geographic backgrounds. Extreme climate change can cause natural disasters that have the potential to cause losses and even claim victims. Thus, Lampung, which is a disaster-prone area, is interesting to be studied whether the government and the community's efforts to realize potential disasters have been accomplished properly. This research explains the efforts that have been and need to be done by Lampung Province in responding to potential disasters through a policy brief in order to motivate the government to pay more attention to climate change and natural disasters. This research is a type of qualitative research with primary data that will be taken by using interview techniques and literature review. The survey was conducted by random sampling the people of Lampung regarding the level of awareness of potential disasters. The data will also be obtained by using Google Trend. The results of this research indicate that the efforts of the Lampung Provincial Government such as mitigation, emergency response, reconstruction, rehabilitation, disaster risk assessments, and support from the epistemic community.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (06) ◽  
pp. A07
Author(s):  
Madeleine Montanari ◽  
Liesbet Jacobs ◽  
Mordechai Haklay ◽  
Felix Kwabena Donkor ◽  
Maria Rosa Mondardini

Citizen science (CS) is promoted as a useful practice for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this contribution we explore how CS aligns to the SDGs overarching pledge to ‘Leave no one behind’. We propose a framework to evaluate exclusionary processes in CS. We interlink three dimensions of CS inspired by existing CS typologies with five factors underpinning exclusionary processes. With this, we are able to situate existing literature on various exclusionary effects in CS within a structured framework. We hope this contribution sparks a discussion and inspires practitioners’ reflections on a more inclusive practice in CS.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Souza ◽  
Julian Santos ◽  
Gabriel SantClair ◽  
Janaina Gomide ◽  
Luan Santos

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are part of a global effort to reduce the impacts of climate change, promoting social justice and economic growth. The United Nations provides a database with hundreds of indicators to track the SDGs since 2016 for a total of 302 regions. This work aims to assess which countries are in a similar situation regarding sustainable development. Principal Component Analysis was used to reduce the dimension of the dataset and k-means algorithm was used to cluster countries according to their SDGs indicators. For the years of 2016, 2017 and 2018 were obtained 11, 13 and 11 groups, respectively. This paper also analyses clusters changes throughout the years.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel N. A. Codjoe ◽  
D. Yaw Atiglo

Sub-Saharan Africa is among the regions that contribute least to global climate change, yet it is among the most vulnerable to its impacts due to low levels of economic and technological development. The frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events in the region are rising at a faster rate than the population capacity to deal with the attendant disasters. This paper interrogates some emerging and existing evidence of the potential for extreme weather events to obviate countries' attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Whilst previous studies have assessed the vulnerabilities of sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to extreme weather events on specific sectors, a comprehensive assessment of the implications of these extreme events for attaining the SDGs remains largely untouched. This paper assesses the impacts of flooding, extreme heat and drought on five key SDGs—Zero hunger (Goal 2), Good health and well-being (Goal 3), Quality education (Goal 4), Clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), and Sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11). Based on empirical cases from different SSA country contexts, and guided by the SDG targets and indicators, we discuss the main interactions between extreme weather events and different SDGs, emerging with a framework for the climate change—sustainable development nexus. Such an assessment, with regard to specific national and local case studies, would inform policy formulation and implementation, research and investment toward sustainable development in the region. Integrating resilence strategies into national development policies will offer sub-Saharan African countries the opportunity to reduce the impacts of extreme weather events on attaining their targets for sustainable development towards Agenda 2030.


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