Place-Making and Sustainable Community Development

This review chapter explores place-making in terms of how it is linked with sustainable community development (SCD). Place-making as it relates to sustainable community development has not been understood in the practice of sustainability, urban planning, and community development. Here, place-making is a process of planning, designing, managing, and programming spaces to create patterns and activities in cultural, social, economic, and ecological terms to achieve a better quality of life, a prosperous economy, and healthy environment. As informed by research, it can be an approach to sustainability thinking as a strategy for transforming cities and public spaces to promote well-being and prosperity in a local place, urban area, or neighborhood. In the long-term, the theory and practice of sustainable community development relative to place-making will evolve and eventually produce well-grounded meanings and conceptualizations as we engage in more research on sustainability and sustainable development.

Challenges Turning Environment and Sustainability Science Into Policy

In theory, there is a strong, two-way relationship between sustainability research and public policy that functions in synchrony to identify, understand, and ultimately address ecological problems for the greater good of society. In reality, such a cooperative relationship is rarely found. Instead, researchers and policymakers face a suite of challenges that prevent effective communication and collaborative pursuits, prolonging the period required to address environmental issues. In this chapter, the authors apply a novel interdisciplinary approach to identify key barriers and solutions to translating research into policy. In doing so, the authors present two separate discussions focused on the natural and social sciences. The authors also review established research-to-policy frameworks to develop the new “cohesive” framework. By addressing key barriers between researchers and policymakers, society will be better able to respond to the various environmental stressors that it faces today.

Reduction of Carbon Intensity

Global warming is unequivocal and almost certainly caused by recent human activities that have increased the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Emissions reductions of carbon dioxide and cumulative carbon emissions from energy consumption have created widespread concern of various government agencies, scientific circle, and the general public. The states and the international community are simultaneously struggling to address climate change. Impacts of carbon emission are inevitable and there is a long debate as to who bears the losses incurred due to the carbon emission. Both the developing and the developed economies need to reduce their CO2 intensity significantly for stabilizing the Earth's climate at no more than a 2°C temperature rise. However, for the sake of health, safety, and environment, the supply of oil and gas as well as emission of carbon need to be operated in an environmentally sustainable manner so as to avoid environmental harms.

Biological Conservation

Despite building a clear and compelling message about the importance of conserving biodiversity and what we risk in depleting it, meaningful engagement from implicated stakeholders remains limited. Past studies have examined the gap between the possession of environmental knowledge and displaying behavior that would help to conserve it. Essentially, increasing awareness and interest in environmental issues does not ensure that individuals will make the necessary changes in behaviours detrimental to biological conservation. This is a concern as failure to meaningfully engage the public into acting on conservation strategies will hamper efforts to curb biodiversity loss. Herein the authors investigate why action to address biodiversity loss has been slow or deficient in many jurisdictions. The authors draw from models and theories developed in health and social sciences to provide context to the key factors that prevent action and propose steps that could be taken to stimulate it.

The Impact of Climate Change and Variability on Small-Scale Peri-Urban Horticultural Farmers in Domboshawa, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a semi-arid country reliant on regular rains (November-April). Mean annual rainfall is low, and many rivers in the drier parts of the country are not perennial. In the small-scale horticultural sector, irrigation becomes handy. Rainfall exhibits spatial and temporal variability. This scenario is characterized by shifts in the onset of rains, increases in frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events, increases in the proportion of low rainfall years, decreases in low-intensity rainfall events, and increases in the frequency and intensity of mid-season dry spells. Drought have increased in frequency and intensity. Agriculture is the main source of income for most smallholder farmers who depend on rain-fed cropping and livestock rearing. Adaptation of agriculture to climate variability and change impacts is vital for livelihood. To develop appropriate strategies and institutional responses to climate change adaptation, a clear understanding of climate change impacts on smallholder farmers at farm-level is vital.

Educating for a Sustainable World

Educating for a sustainable future and learning to live within our planetary limits is the most pressing challenge of our times. In this chapter, the authors present an emerging model of transcultural education that brings together Indigenous and western knowledges. This approach aims to engage learners from different cultures and knowledge traditions with the purpose of guiding them through ideas and processes of imagining, listening, speaking, and working together in a way that respects differences, acknowledges common ground, and seeks to co-create new knowledges. Bringing together Indigenous and Western knowledges in this manner creates a unique context that can potentially build the mindsets, skills, and dispositions that are needed for living and managing sustainably. A pedagogy grounded in this approach can potentially promote student interest and engagement across cultural and social divides, foster successful learning about bridging social inequalities, and cultivate an ethos of social, cultural, and environmental responsibility.

Integrating Inner and External Dimensions for Holistic Sustainability

Over the past century, sustainability scholars and scientists have largely focused on the complex relationships between society, economy, and environment. The authors refer to this approach as external sustainability research, which positions the built and natural environment as key to a sustainable future. Yet, our external environment is a manifestation of deeply held beliefs, values, attitudes, and perceptions of the world—the inner dimensions of sustainability. Within sustainability science, a deeper understanding of the inner dimensions could promote lasting external sustainability measures, strategies, and interventions. This chapter envisions sustainability as a holistic collection of internal and external guiding principles that can be enhanced through practice. First, the authors draw on perspectives from “Western sustainability” and Indigenous philosophies. Next, case studies integrating holistic sustainability approaches are shared. They conclude by integrating the primary literature with the case studies and call on sustainability science to more deeply consider the inner dimensions.

Planning Urban Futures With Reference to Sustainable Cities

This chapter is a review of scholarly works on planning for urban futures with special reference to sustainable cities. The chapter aims to produce an update of the challenges and current perspectives on urban planning, sustainability and development across the globe. As informed by research from the academic and scientific communities, the review provides the prospective directions and trends for securing a sustainable urban future. In the sustainable cities discourse, recent intellectual inquiry focused on the conceptualization and knowledge production to create sustainable cities. Though the scope of the review may not be exhaustive, the purpose is to articulate the current progress in the research front concerning concepts and definitions on sustainable cities, planning and methods for urban sustainability development and assessment. The ultimate goal is to provide local authorities, practitioners and/or city governments with some perspective and guidance in working towards urban sustainability in the future.

Urbanization and Its Implication for Sustainable Development in a Circular Economy

Only about 25% of the world's land area and soil can be viewed as sustainable for agriculture. The rest of the soils are too dry, too wet, steep, rocky, cold, shallow, acidic, alkaline, or saline to allow the growing of crops. The major problems lie on the harshly increasing need for agricultural products due to rising populations as well as to the world desire to attain ever higher living standards. Food shortage, increase in toxic chemical in production, and urbanization are three inseparable things. One way to solve food shortage is to increase agricultural production. However, increase of agricultural production involves a package of measures that must be fitted to the specific situations in each case. Those measures are the use of high-yielding crops like cassava and varieties and a set of treatments designed to optimize growing conditions. Among such treatments is the use of nature-based solution like the use of cassava waste in feeding of livestock, use of cassava waste as a manure, minimizing losses of water and nutrients due to runoffs.

A Historic Perspective of Endophytes in Vascular Plants and Their Role in Environmental Sustainability

The term “endophyte” comes from words “endo” meaning within and “phyton” meaning plant. In 1866, De Bary first defined an endophyte as any organism that resides in the tissues of plants but not causing any harm. Thus, endophytes can be a microorganism, usually fungi or bacteria, that colonizes plants parts. The plant tissues/parts where endophytes grow include healthy leaves, petioles, stems, twigs, bark, roots, fruits, flowers, and seeds. They are found virtually in every one of the 300,000 species of vascular plants. Many endophytes co-exist in a single plant host with their populations ranging from one to hundreds of bacterial/fungal species. This chapter outlines a historical perspective of endophytes including ethnobotanical approach to drug discovery. Also, this chapter provides upto date information on the emerging role of endophytes in the sustainability of pasture and economy of agriculture, thereby contributing to the environmental sustainability.