Sustainable development is an organizing principle that aims to meet human development goals while also enabling natural systems to provide necessary natural resources and ecosystem services to humans. The desired result is a society where living conditions and resources meet human needs without undermining the planetary integrity and stability of the natural system. The Brundtland Report in 1987 defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". The concept of sustainable development nowadays has a focus on economic development, social development and environmental protection for future generations.
The Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) is an integrated compendium of twenty one encyclopedias.
World Water Day is an annual United Nations (UN) observance day held on 22 March that highlights the importance of fresh water. The day is used to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The theme of each year focuses on topics relevant to clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), which is in line with the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6. The UN World Water Development Report (WWDR) is released each year around World Water Day.
Peter H. Gleick is an American scientist working on issues related to the environment. He works at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, which he co-founded in 1987. In 2003 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his work on water resources. Among the issues he has addressed are conflicts over water resources, water and climate change, development, and human health.
Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably. It is a multi-disciplinary field integrating disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, ecology, earth science, atmospheric science, mathematics, and geography.
The Earth Institute is a research institute at Columbia University that was established in 1995. Its stated mission is to address complex issues facing the planet and its inhabitants, with a focus on sustainable development. With an interdisciplinary approach, this includes research in climate change, geology, global health, economics, management, agriculture, ecosystems, urbanization, energy, hazards, and water. The Earth Institute's activities are guided by the idea that science and technological tools that already exist could be applied to greatly improve conditions for the world's poor, while preserving the natural systems that support life on Earth.
The International Social Science Council (ISSC) was an international non-governmental organization promoting the social sciences, including the economic and behavioural sciences. It was founded in Paris, France between 6 and 9 October 1952, under the auspices of UNESCO, following a Resolution at the 6th UNESCO General Conference in 1951. It was adopted on 19 September 1972, completed and revised on 14 November 1979, and underwent multiple revisions on 17 December 1985, 3 December 1992, 27 November 1998, 8 November 2006, and finally 10 December 2010. ISSC was registered in accordance with French Law.
The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) is a non-profit, non-governmental international network of forest scientists, headquartered in Austria.The aim of the organization is to promote worldwide cooperation in scientific studies embracing the whole field of research related to forests and their use and sustainable development. In 2019 IUFRO counted 630 Member Organizations worldwide.
Founded in 1935, the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) is a worldwide, not-for-profit, global, independent members-based organisation of engineers, professionals and researchers working in fields related to the hydro-environment and in particular with reference to hydraulics and its practical application. IAHR was called the International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research until 2009.
The International Programme for the Development of Communication is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) programme aimed at strengthening the development of mass media in developing countries.
Ven Te Chow, was a Chinese-American engineer. He was a widely recognized hydrologist and hydraulic engineer, acclaimed for his contributions to hydrology and water resources development.
Sustainability science first emerged in the 1980s and has become a new academic discipline. Similar to agricultural science or health science, it is an applied science defined by the practical problems it addresses. Sustainability science focuses on issues relating to sustainability and sustainable development as core parts of its subject matter. It is "defined by the problems it addresses rather than by the disciplines it employs" and "serves the need for advancing both knowledge and action by creating a dynamic bridge between the two".
Environmental adult education is recognized as a "hybrid outgrowth of the environmental movement and adult education, combining an ecological orientation with a learning paradigm to provide a vigorous educational approach to environmental concerns."
The World Forestry Congress (WFC) is the largest and most significant gathering of the world's forestry sector and it has been held every six years since 1926 under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, organized by the government of the host country. It is a forum for the sharing of knowledge and experience regarding the conservation, management and use of the world's forests, and covers such issues as international dialogue, socio-economic and institutional aspects, and forest policies.
The United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) is a global report that provides an authoritative, comprehensive assessment of the world’s freshwater resources. It is produced annually by the World Water Assessment Programme and released by UN-Water.
The UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme was founded in 2000 in response to a call from the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) to produce a UN system-wide periodic global overview of the status, use and management of freshwater resources. To meet this challenge, WWAP coordinates the work of 31 UN-Water members and international partners, under the umbrella mechanism of UN-Water, in the production of the World Water Development Report (WWDR). The WWDR is the UN flagship report on water issues; it is a comprehensive review, released every year with a different focus on different strategic water issues, that gives an overall picture of the state, use and management of the world’s freshwater resources and aims to provide decision-makers with tools to formulate and implement sustainable water policies.
Open educational resources (OER) are learning materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. OER policies (also sometimes known as laws, regulations, strategies, guidelines, principles or tenets) are adopted by governments, institutions or organisations in support of the creation and use of open content, specifically open educational resources (OER), and related open educational practices.
Soroosh Sorooshian is an Iranian-born American civil engineer, and educator. He is a distinguished professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine and currently serving as the Director of the Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing.
Climate change education (CCE) is education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change. It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change, prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change and empowers learners to take appropriate actions to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. Climate change and climate change education are global challenges that can be anchored in the curriculum in order to provide local learning and widen up mindset shits on how climate change can be mitigated. In such as case CCE is more than climate change literacy but understanding ways of dealing with climate
Malin Fredrika Sofia Sundberg-Falkenmark, born 21 November 1925) is a Swedish hydrologist. Falkenmark is best known for her long-standing work and expertise on the sustainable use of water resources to meet human and ecosystem needs. Her work is characterized by an integration of both natural- and social-science approaches. She is particularly known for developing what is now known as the Falkenmark Water Stress Indicator, an indicator used to measure and describe the water available for human use. She is the daughter of Halvar Sundberg.
