Sustainability Science

Conflicts over land use and their resolution are one of the core challenges in reaching sustainable development today. The aim of this paper is to better understand the mechanisms that underlie conflict resolution. To do so we focus on the use and integration of different knowledge types for conflict resolution in three fields: natural resource management, transdisciplinary research and urban planning. We seek to understand what role different types of knowledge have in the different examples and contexts given. How is knowledge conceptualized and defined? How is it used and integrated to resolve conflicts? These questions are answered through a thematic review of the literature and a discussion of the different knowledge typologies from the respective research fields. We compare conflict resolution approaches and, as a synthesis, present an interdisciplinary knowledge typology for conflict resolution. We find that knowledge use centered approaches are seen as facilitating a common understanding of a problem and creating a necessary base for more productive collaboration across disciplines. However, it is often unclear what knowledge means in the studies analyzed. More attention to the role that different knowledge types have in conflict resolution is needed in order to shed more light on the possible shortcomings of the resolution processes. This might serve as a base to improve conflict resolution towards more lasting, long-term oriented and therefore more sustainable solutions. We conclude that the three literatures inform and enrich each other across disciplinary boundaries and can be used to develop more refined approaches to understanding knowledge use in conflict analysis and resolution.

Can growth-oriented resource-intensive cities be redesigned as non-consumptive sustainable places in a climate constrained world? This research tests that proposition through a design exploration of the transformation of a 500-ha inner city industrial district in Calgary, Canada, to a sustainable low-carbon city district. The research is formulated with respect to three theoretical axis-theories of urbanism, complexity and transitions; three spatial moments of the production process-production, reproduction and consumption and three temporal moments of the production process-manufacture, use, and post-use. The spatial and temporal moments leverage models of, industrial ecology and circular economy, sustainable cities and derivatives including smart, post-carbon and eco-cities. We employ a participatory design and backcasting methodology informed by theories of path dependence/creation. We establish a set of performance criteria, conduct three rounds of participatory design explorations and follow a strategy of scale-up of existing technology, engineering and design precedents. We identify a set of eight barriers and associated mitigation strategies. These include the stigma of living adjacent to, and the cost to rehabilitate, industrial lands; spatial and cultural auto-dependence; fragmentation of land ownership; infrastructure financing; regional connectivity and path dependence of the planning process. We propose that in order to achieve socially, ecologically and economically sustainable low-carbon cities attention needs to be addressed to culturally transformative alternatives to automobility, new forms of cooperative and localized economy, provision of non-market modes of land development and democratic and regulatory reform. To conclude we reformulate our conceptual framework within three nested domainssocio-technical, econo-political and cultural-cosmological.

Mythmaking presents us with an idiosyncratic fusion of language and metaphysics so as to simply convey meaning as language does, and also communicate an entire metaphysics at a level of meaning beyond language and image. Claiming so, is to attest to the relevance of myths in the operationalization of ecological worldviews. In this paper, I will assume such an operational relationship between myths and ecological worldviews. First and foremost, our worldviews act as 'first principles' in establishing our interaction with our environment. At a time when anthropogenic ecocide presents a grave threat to the balance of life on earth, this fundamental notion is of great relevance. Specifically, this paper will study how myths mediated human interaction with nature in the past and continue to do so today. By comparing sets of myths of the Tukano Indians of the Amazon and Hindus of India, I will identify two functions of myth as mediator between man and nature.

Religion in its most ideal form is seen as a powerful force to create ecological transformations to succeeding generations that share similar religious beliefs. This provides an interesting argument for enhancing their role in sustainability transitions. Malaysia is a relevant geographical context in this regard since almost all of its citizens formally embrace some kind of religious belief. However, such ideas are discussed mostly at the theoretical level with little systematic empirical investigation. This paper aims to fill this gap by presenting theoretically informed empirical insights on how a number of religious communities are currently creating successful experiments in recycling within the context of an urban community in Malaysia. The paper argues that such evidence may demonstrate the 'potential' role of religious communities to provide localised resources for recycling experiments that can be advantageous for the transition towards a more sustainable municipal solid waste management in Malaysia. The empirical basis of this paper is based on an exploratory multiple case study of successful recycling programmes conducted by selected religious communities from four key religions in Malaysia-Buddhism, Chris-tianity, Hinduism and Islam. The theoretical framework for this research is based on the sustainability transitions literature , particularly the 'transition experiment' framework.

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In the context of complex and unprecedented issues of global change, calls for new modes of knowledge production that are better equipped to address urgent challenges of global sustainability are increasingly frequent. This paper presents a case study of the new major research programme " Future Earth " , which aims to bring 'research for global sustainability' to the mainstream of global change research. A core principle of Future Earth is the co-production of knowledge with extra-scientific actors. In studying how the principle of co-production becomes institutionalised in the emerging structure of Future Earth, this paper points to the existence of three distinct rationales (logics) on the purpose and practice of co-production. Co-production is understood as a way to enhance scientific accountability to society ('logic of accountability'), to ensure the implementation of scientific knowledge in society ('logic of impact'), and to include the knowledge, perspectives and experiences of extra-scientific actors in scientific knowledge production ('logic of humility'). This heterogeneous conception of knowledge co-production provides helpful ambiguity allowing actors with different perspectives on science and its role in society to engage in Future Earth. However, in the process of designing an institutional structure for Future Earth tensions between the different logics of co-production become apparent. This research shows how logics of accountability and impact are prominent in shaping the development of Future Earth. The paper concludes by pointing to an essential tension between being inclusive and transformative when it comes to institutionalising new modes of knowledge production in large research programmes.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is replete with significant environmental resources including forests, water, land, and energy; although its transition to a bio-resource economy is yet to be actualized. Consequently, there are limited socio-economic gains from resource valorization. These challenges which stall progress towards the attainment of several interlinked sustainable development goals, are rooted, among others in resource governance defects. Furthermore, the persistence of knowledge fragmentation on resource governance shades possibilities for an in-depth theorizing of the nexus approach. In this light, two questions beg for answers: (i) To what extent are governance indicators captured in empirical studies on the nexus approach in SSA? (ii) What questions and approaches should inform future research on the nexus approach in SSA? To answer these questions, this paper systematically reviews 100 peer-reviewed articles (with 154 cases) that address governance questions in nexus stud...

The subject of this detailed report is the documentation of the energy sub-model within the world model project. The model is a foundation of a global energy strategy, which is able to provide a sufficient amount of energy also in the 22nd century.

On the level of primary energy supply, the model is distinguishing between ten energy sources. The decline of the reserves of non-renewable resources is calculated based on the current proven reserves using a temporally dynamic model of annual production. Final energy consumption is separated into electricity, hydrogen and direct use. Regarding environmental impacts, the model calculates the total emissions of CO2 and the need of area for solar power stations and energy-to-use crops.

Energy use is calculated for three scenarios P5.5, P7 and P8 with different demographic assumptions but also for variants C1000, C1200 and C1250 with different CO2 emissions. The
C1000 variant is based on claim of climate sciences to limit cumulative CO2 emissions over 2000 to 2050 at 1000 gigatons. The energy gap induced by the renouncement on fossil fuels is closed by an increased use of solar technology.

For the scenario P7 in the C1000 variant, the situation for ten selected countries will be discussed as well. Thus, the large consumers of China, India and the U.S. will continue to be, and
sometimes even increasingly dependent on imports of energy. Those imports come from countries with a production surplus, as examples Algeria and Australia are discussed. Even Switzerland, with its high population density will continue to be dependent on energy imports, a complete self-sufficiency in renewable energy is not possible.

At the global level, the replacement of non-renewable with renewable energy sources in principle seems to be possible. In the middle scenario P7 with the C1000 variant, the model calculates an area need of 250,000 km^2 and 900,000 km^2 calculated for solar cells for energy-to-use plants. The
use of nuclear fusion, with 160 plants worldwide and a production of a total of 7.2 EJ, plays a comparatively small role.

There is growing demand among stakeholders across public and private institutions for spatially-explicit information regarding vulnerability to climate change at the local scale. However, the challenges associated with mapping the geography of climate change vulnerability are non-trivial, both conceptually and technically, suggesting the need for more critical evaluation of this practice. Here, we review climate change vulnerability mapping in the context of four key questions that are fundamental to assessment design. First, what are the goals of the assessment? A review of published assessments yields a range of objective statements that emphasize problem orientation or decision-making about adaptation actions. Second, how is the assessment of vulnerability framed? Assessments vary with respect to what values are assessed (vulnerability of what) and the underlying determinants of vulnerability that are considered (vulnerability to what). The selected frame ultimately influences perceptions of the primary driving forces of vulnerability as well as preferences regarding management alternatives. Third, what are the technical methods by which an assessment is conducted? The integration of vulnerability determinants into a common map remains an emergent and subjective practice associated with a number of methodological challenges. Fourth, who participates in the assessment and how will it be used to facilitate change? Assessments are often conducted under the auspices of benefiting stakeholders, yet many lack direct engagement with stakeholders. Each of these questions is reviewed in turn by drawing on an illustrative set of 45 vulnerability mapping studies appearing in the literature. A number of pathways for placing vulnerability mapping on a more robust footing are also identified.

The analysis of the dynamic interactions between social systems, integrated by governance and communication, and biophysical systems, connected by material and energy flows, remains a challenge. In this paper, we draw on the heuristic models of the ''adaptive renewal cycle'' and ''panarchy'' [Gunderson and Holling (eds) Panarchy: understanding transformations in human and natural systems. Island Press, Washington, 2002], which are embedded in the theory of complex adaptive systems. Taking island development research in The Bahamas as a case study, we investigate environmental stressors, knowledge and social response in the context of three distinct social-ecological subsystems: (1) the interaction between tropical storms/hurricanes and the social system of disaster preparedness/management; (2) coastal ecosystem degradation coupled with land development; and (3) the fishery, in which we also consider the impact of a recent biological invasion, the Indo-Pacific red lionfish. The findings demonstrate the complexity of panarchical relations and the crucial role of diverse and uncertain knowledge systems and underlying mental models of risk and environment for resilience and sustainability. These are acquired at different scales and form key variables of change. This also applies to processes of communication.

River landscapes are complex social-ecological systems with many benefits for people. A common challenge is to integrate social values in river planning and management. In particular, there is a paucity of research on the meaning and significance of place in river recreation and how people feel emotionally and spiritually connected to river landscapes. Based on five European case studies, this study compares different methods and approaches for mapping sense of place in river landscapes and subsequently addresses the question of how these studies can inform participatory processes. The case studies are set in diverse geographical, institutional and policy contexts, including the planning and evaluation of river restoration projects in Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and Spain and the monitoring of the effects of newly constructed river dams in the Netherlands. This comparative study is a first step in understanding the breadth of analytical and spatial approaches that can be used to assess sense of place in river landscapes and their implications for resilient river landscape planning and management.

Sustainability science offers an alternative space for research that challenges colonial histories of western science, especially in its orientation to interdisciplinarity and for addressing complex problems through equitable knowledge co-production processes. However, the justice-oriented commitments within sustainability science remain underdeveloped, in particular for centering Indigenous Research Methods (IRM) and promoting decolonization of academic institutions. In this paper, we draw from more than ten years of experience across three cases of conducting sustainability science in Indigenous homelands. The cases focus on (1) adaptive responses to the Emerald Ash Borer insect which threatens black ash basketmaking cultures and economies; (2) efforts to link science with decision making to protect public health and reduce shellfish bed closures; and (3) collaborative research to support dam removal and river restoration. We identify tensions in science as a discourse, including how sustainability science is uniquely shaped by practices of naming and social constructions of time. We then describe how we engage these tensions through four main commitments to critical praxis, or tailored practices that respond to emergent problems and systems of power. These commitments include centering Wabanaki diplomacy and IRMs, redesigning all stages of research for inclusivity and dialogue, attending to multiple temporalities, and supporting Wabanaki and Indigenous students as leaders and researchers. To conclude, we reflect on how these practices may be adapted to other contexts, histories, and sustainability-related issues.

In the wake of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that devastated part of northeastern Japan in March 2011, proposals for reconstruction and rehabilitation are still subjects of debate. The claim by many climate scientists that large-scale extreme events can be expected in the future, with similar catastrophic effects in coastal areas, suggests the need for long-term planning that aims at building resilience, the ability for socio-ecological systems to withstand and recover quickly from natural disasters, and continue to develop. We hypothesize that ecosystems and socio-economic resilience will provide affected communities with flexible barriers against future disasters and greater protection in the long run than will hard/engineering solutions such as high seawalls aimed at ensuring only physical security. Building social/ecological resilience in the Tohoku region will increase general security and is anticipated also to contribute to an enhanced quality of life now and for generations to come. This paper argues that building resilience in the affected area requires a transformation to sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries and we describe how the links between satoyama and satoumi, traditional rural territorial and coastal landscapes in Japan, can contribute to this revitalization and to strengthening the relationship between local residents and the landscape in the affected communities. Decision makers at local, regional and national levels need to take a holistic approach based on sustainability science to understand the inter-relationships between these landscapes and ecosystems to develop a robust rebuilding plan for the affected communities. Moreover, this paper suggests that building resilient communities in Japan that demonstrate the strategic benefits of satoyama and satoumi linkages can be a model for building resilient rural and urban communities throughout the world.

The concept of sustainable lifestyles is said to have reached the limits of its usefulness. As commonly understood, it impedes an effective response to our increasingly complex world, and the associated societal challenges. In this context, the emerging paradigm of relationality might offer a way forward to renew our current understanding and approach. We explore this possibility in this study. First, we systematize if, and how, the current dominant social paradigm represents a barrier to sustainable lifestyles. Second, we analyze how a relational approach could help to overcome these barriers. On the basis of our findings, we develop a Relational Lifestyle Framework (RLF). Our aim is to advance the current knowledge by illustrating how sustainable lifestyles are a manifestation of identified patterns of thinking, being, and acting that are embedded in today’s “socioecological” realities. The RLF revitalizes the field of sustainable lifestyle change, as it offers a new understanding...

The crisis caused by COVID-19 has affected research in a variety of ways. As far as research on sustainable development is concerned, the lockdown has significantly disrupted the usual communication channels and, among other things, has led to the cancellation of meetings and long-planned events. It has also led to delay in the delivery of research projects. There is a gap in the literature in regards to how a global crisis influences sustainability research. Therefore, this groundbreaking paper undertakes an analysis of the extent to which COVID-19 as a whole, and the lockdown in particular, has influenced sustainability research, and it outlines the solutions pursued by researchers around the world to overcome the many challenges they have experienced. This paper also outlines some measures that may be implemented in the future to take more advantage of existing technologies that support research on sustainable development.

Currently, there are various voluntary certification schemes at the global level in carrying out the process of managing natural resources and the environment responsibly; for example the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for the oil palm plantation sector and its products, and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for the forestry sector and ecosystem services. One of the important areas in the FSC and RSPO schemes is the preservation of High Conservation Values. High conservation value is a biological, ecological, social and cultural value that has extraordinary or very important significance.

High conservation values ​​are divided into 6 categories, as follows: (1) Species diversity, (2) Ecosystems and mosaics at the landscape level, (3) Ecosystems and habitats, (4) Ecosystem services, (5) Community needs, and (6) Cultural values.

Management units and management organizations are required to carry out assessments for the presence of High Conservation Values ​​in their operational areas or concessions. If the presence of High Conservation Values ​​is identified, the management unit/organization is required to carry out management and monitoring in accordance with the recommendations from the assessment results which are generally carried out by independent parties. The objective of management and monitoring is to ensure that the High Conservation Values ​​in their operational areas are not threatened or lost. If possible the value can be increased.

Currently, in Indonesia, Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea, there are still limited numbers of practitioners and professionals with expertise and field experience in the implementation of HCV assessment studies and implementation of HCV management and monitoring. The conservation biology discipline in Indonesia has great potential to develop the labour market situation and the profession to meet the needs related to the implementation of the HCV approach in Indonesia. For this reason, it is necessary to review the learning dimensions which include the substance, methods and learning environment, as well as learning outcomes that can promote the achievement of the competencies required in the field of work related to the HCV approach (assessment, management, and monitoring studies).

Keywords: Ecosystem, Conservation, Biodiversity, Sustainable Development, Environmental Services, High Conservation Value

This paper examines some of the more-thanrepresentational knowledge that underpins food systems. As argued, it is not enough to know what sustainability is. We have to, literally, be able to feel (care for, taste, practice…) it. The author begins by drawing upon interviews with food scientists, food advertisers and marketers, and executives from the food industry. Interviews with individuals from the food manufacturing industry reveal numerous tensions routinely grappled with by those actors as they attempted to make the industrial food system appear unproblematic and its wares desirable. The value of these data becomes particularly clear when triangulated with those presented in the paper's second half, where the author discusses some of the findings of research projects still underway-case studies of food-based community activism in Chicago and Denver (USA). The data collectively suggest the existence of a class of ''barriers'' that the literature-and many activists and practitioners-miss but which must be overcome if we hope to see a diversification of foodscapes. These constraints speak specifically to morethan-representational visceralities that buttress industrial food and the system from whence they come-what the author calls ''affective barriers''. The paper argues (social) bodies need to be ''retuned'' to the tastes, cares, textures, and practices associated with alternatives to the (food) status quo and offers examples of how this is already being done.

Over the last decade, sustainability science has been at the leading edge of widespread efforts from the social and natural sciences to produce use-inspired research. Yet, how knowledge generated by sustainability science and allied fields will contribute to transitions toward sustainability remains a critical theoretical and empirical question for basic and applied research. This article explores the limitations of sustainability science research to move the field beyond the analysis of problems in coupled systems to interrogate the social, political and technological dimensions of linking knowledge and action. Over the next decade, sustainability science can strengthen its empirical, theoretical and practical contributions by developing along four research pathways focused on the role of values in science and decision-making for sustainability: how communities at various scales envision and pursue sustainable futures; how socio-technical change can be fostered at multiple scales; the promotion of social and institutional learning for sustainable development.

The increasing demand for agricultural commodities is a major cause of tropical deforestation. However, pressure is increasing for greater sustainability of commodity value chains. This includes the demand to establish new crop plantations and pasture areas on already deforested land so that new forest clearing for agriculture is minimized. Where tree crops are planted as part of agroforestry systems on deforested land, this amounts to a form of re-agro-forestation which can generate environmental benefits in addition to crop production. Here, we discuss a case where agroforestry systems based on cocoa (Theobroma cacao) are being established on crop and pasture land in the south of Pará state, Brazilian Amazon. The adoption of cocoa by farmers and ranchers of the region is stimulated by the coincidence of (1) favorable prospects for cocoa on the national and international markets including the expectation of a global cocoa supply gap; (2) environmental policies obliging land owners to reforest excess cleared land with native trees, with agroforests based on the native cocoa tree being an economically attractive option; and (3) biophysical conditions (especially soil fertility) favorable for growing cocoa in part of the region. We show that in the state of Pará at least 1.26 million hectares of naturally high-fertility soils in deforested areas outside legally protected and indigenous lands are potentially suitable for cocoa production with low agrochemical inputs, sufficient to make a significant contribution to closing the predicted supply gap. Their actual suitability depends on their state of degradation after years of pasture use and the availability of technologies and finance to convert them into tree crop agroforests. We discuss the significant environmental benefits of pasture re-agro-forestation with cocoabased systems, including reduced emissions of up to 135 Mg of carbon per hectare compared to the historically common scenario of planting cocoa after forest clearing. We identify important research questions related to the scaling up of this practice and the maximization of its environmental benefits. We conclude that the coincidence of the afore-mentioned factors could drive a re-agroforestation frontier in this part of the Amazon, with potential for positive outcomes in terms of commodity production while generating social and environmental benefits. Keywords Climate-smart commodities Á Deforestation Á Environmental services Á Reforestation Á Soil fertility Á Theobroma cacao Á Zero deforestation policy Handled by Osamu Saito, UNU-Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (IAS), Japan.

There is emerging agreement that sustainability challenges require new ways of knowledge production and decision-making. One key aspect of sustainability science, therefore, is the involvement of actors from outside academia into the research process in order to integrate the best available knowledge, reconcile values and preferences, as well as create ownership for problems and solution options. Transdisciplinary, community-based, interactive, or participatory research approaches are often suggested as appropriate means to meet both the requirements posed by real-world problems as well as the goals of sustainability science as a transformational scientific field. Dispersed literature on these approaches and a variety of empirical projects applying them make it difficult for interested researchers and practitioners to review and become familiar with key components and design principles of how to do transdisciplinary sustainability research. Starting from a conceptual model of an ideal-typical transdisciplinary research process, this article synthesizes and structures such a set of principles from various strands of the literature and empirical experiences. We then elaborate on them, looking at challenges and some coping strategies as experienced in transdisciplinary sustainability projects in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. The article concludes with future research needed in order to further enhance the practice of transdisciplinary sustainability research.

Ecological economics was formally established in 1989 with the ambitious vision of developing a new economic paradigm embedding the social and economic systems in the biophysical world. Ecological economics had its roots in the biophysical understanding of economics that pioneers of the field Georgescu-Roegen (1971), Odum (1971), Daly (1977), Jansson (1984), Martinez-Alier (1987) and others developed while studying the thermodynamic bedrocks shared by natural and social systems. Subsequently, however, ecological economics has explicitly but controversially adopted a ‘big umbrella’ approach to methodological pluralism, focusing more on topics such as valuing nature and its functions rather than attempting to understand and quantify the biophysical roots of economic activities. Biophysical economics was established in response to these concerns, focusing more on developing analyses and models of the transformations of nature to generate wealth and approached mostly from an energy and material flows perspective. The present paper argues that to achieve its original vision ecological economics must return to its biophysical roots. Collaboration between the two fields will help the next generation of thinkers to address the socio ecological challenges of the 21st century requiring an energy transformation called for by aspirations such as the Green New Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Practitioners and scholars of environmental communication need practical, applied methods to enhance creative collaboration around sustainability science. I make a case for transmedia as an integrated approach to these complex challenges. First, I overview the emergence of integrated transmedia storytelling in media production and research, sharing examples that illustrate how it promotes engagement. I then provide a case study of my own applied transmedia project, a website called Safe Beaches, Shellfish, & You that demonstrates the potential for this method to engage publics with communication about and for environments. Finally, I call for a turn from storytelling to storymaking. I find that transmedia, as an ecology of storymaking, enhances efforts to connect researchers and stakeholders through sustainability science.

International aid is increasingly focused on adaptation to climate change. At recent meetings of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the developed world agreed to rapidly increase international assistance to help the developing world respond to the impacts of climate change. In this paper, we examine the decision-making challenges facing internationally supported climate change adaptation projects, using the example of efforts to implement coastal protection measures (e.g. sea walls, mangrove planting) in Kiribati. The central equatorial Pacific country is home to the Kiribati Adaptation Project, the first national-level climate change adaptation project supported by the World Bank. Drawing on interview and document research conducted over an 8-year period, we trace the forces influencing decisions about coastal protection measures, starting from the variability and uncertainty in climate change projections, through the trade-offs between different measures, to the social, political, and economic context in which decisions are finally made. We then discuss how sub-optimal adaptation measures may be implemented despite years of planning, consultation, and technical studies. This qualitative analysis of the real-world process of climate change adaptation reveals that embracing a culturally appropriate and short-term (*20 years) planning horizon, while not ignoring the longer-term future, may reduce the influence of scientific uncertainty on decisions and provide opportunities to learn from mistakes, reassess the science, and adjust suboptimal investments. The limiting element in this approach to adaptation is likely to be the availability of consistent, long-term financing.

Over the years rural communities have evolved mechanisms for coping with seasonal stress and recurring disasters using their traditional institutions and practices. External support agents however usually are not aware of these existing mechanisms and have the tendency to descend into disaster affected communities in a ''fire fighting'' mode. Ownership and sustainability of such interventions is often overlooked. The study therefore seeks to identify traditional coping mechanisms that are in place in the study area for disaster management. Methodologies used for data collection includes wealth ranking, group discussions, key informant interviews, questionnaires administration, community institutional and resource mapping and trend analysis. The data analysis employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine key issues.

The field of sustainability science aims to understand the complex and dynamic interactions between natural and human systems in order to transform and develop these in a sustainable manner. As sustainability problems cut across diverse academic disciplines, ranging from the natural sciences to the social sciences and humanities, interdisciplinarity has become a central idea to the realm of sustainability science. Yet, for addressing complicated, real-world sustainability problems, interdisciplinarity per se does not suffice. Active collaboration with various stakeholders throughout society—transdisciplinarity—must form another critical component of sustainability science. In addition to implementing interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in practice, higher education institutions also need to deal with the challenges of institutionalization. In this article, drawing on the experiences of selected higher education academic programs on sustainability, we discuss academic, institutional, and societal challenges in sustainability science and explore the potential of uniting education, research and societal contributions to form a systematic and integrated response to the sustainability crisis.

Most academics, who as researchers and teachers dedicate their lives to information sharing, would likely agree with much of the hacker ethic, which is a belief that information-sharing is a powerful positive good and there is an ethical duty to share expertise by writing free and open-source code and facilitating access to information wherever possible. However,  despite a well-established gift culture similar to that of the open source software movement in academic publishing and the tenure process many academics fail to openly provide the “source” (e.g. data sets, literature reviews, detailed experimental methodologies, designs, and open access to results) of their research. Closed research is particularly egregious when it could be used to accelerate the transition to a sustainable world and this transition is hobbled by antiquated research methodologies that slow the diffusion of innovation. To overcome this challenge, this paper reports on several experiments to embrace the use of open source methodologies in research for applied sustainability. Open-access and open-edit Internet technologies were used as both real-time research tools and a means of disseminating findings on appropriate technology and sustainability-related research to the broadest possible audience. The results of experiments on open source research found that more rapid deployment of sustainability technologies is possible by building on the foundations of the hacker ethic with i) massive peer-review in the development of background material and experimental design, ii) increased visibility, which leads to iii) increased funding opportunities and improved student recruitment, and iv) improved student research-related training and education.

Hydropower developments along the main stem of the Mekong River and its tributaries cause transboundary effects within the Mekong Basin Region, which comprises parts of six countries. On the one hand, the provision of hydropower triggers economic development and helps to meet the rising energy demand of the Mekong riparian countries, especially China, Thailand, and Vietnam. On the other hand, the negative impact of dam construction, mainly altered water flow and sediment load, has severe impacts on the environment and the livelihoods of the rural Mekong population. Several discrepancies exist in the needs, demands, and challenges of upstream versus downstream countries. Against the common apprehension that downstream countries are powerlessly exposed to mainly negative impacts whereas upstream countries unilaterally benefit from hydropower, the authors argue that upstream-downstream relations are not really clear-cut. This conclusion is based on a consideration of the complex power play between Mekong riparians, with a focus on recent power trade interactions. The article investigates the consequences of hydropower dams for the Mekong region as well as the role of supranational players, such as the Mekong River Commission and the Greater Mekong Subregion Initiative, on the hydropower debate. It is not nations that are the winners or losers in the hydropower schemes in the Mekong, but rather parts of the riparian population: a few influential and powerful elites versus the large mass of rural poor.

This report has the objective to combine results from the four existing sub-models of energy, demography, nature and traffic with their numerous variants to an overall picture. The newly developed main variant „LPlus" examines the possibility of increased living standards in developing countries and their impact on the global energy strategy. In particular, the relative contributions of each sector on final energy consumption and the area needed for solar power plants are quantified.

As a main result from the model calculations, it can be stated that the primary energy demand in the main variant „LPlus“ in the scenario P7 in the year 2200 increases by 60 EJ compared with the variant „Llow“, from 284 to 347 EJ, the final energy demand increases by 33.5 EJ from 173.5 to 207 EJ. Most need additional energy is located in the household sector and the transport sector with 15 EJ. With 3.5 EJ, the additional energy consumption for meat production in agriculture is relatively low. The additional area required for solar power plants for this higher standard of living in the scenario P7 increases by 80„000 km^2, from 275„000 to 355„000 km^2.
Starting with an overview on the conceptual foundations and a description of the four sub-models, the main variants „LPlus” and „Llow” are defined through the combinations of the subject-specific variants h3.5, m55 and f0.5 with the most and the least energy consumption. The variant h3.5 describes an increased proportion of small households, the m55 variant increased meat consumption per capita and the variant f0.5 an increased car ownership per household. The impacts of this new main variant on energy consumption are studied for the population scenarios P7 and P8 as well as for individual regions and countries.

The debate about sustainable development (SD) in higher education institutions has expanded over the past decades. It has been recognised that universities play a pivotal role in promoting sustainability principles, contributing to the paradigm shift towards a more sustainable present and future. Campus sustainability – commonly understood in a broad sense that includes the physical, educational (teaching, curricula, research), and institutional dimensions – is an evolving study field, as indicated by the growing number of articles in academic journals, conferences, awards, and books (like the present one) dedicated to the subject.
From the academic point of view, the emergent fields of sustainability science and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) have advanced the efforts of mainstreaming sustainability and implementing concrete practices in universities. But despite some progress and good examples, only a few institutions follow a SD implementation process holistically. A one-sided trend of "going green", driven by market requirements, marketing advantages, and economic benefits, increases the risks of greenwashing. Reductionist models and misconceptions may cause sustainability initiatives to be wrongly reduced to single aspects of SD like environmental initiatives, losing meaning and credibility.
This chapter addresses the question of what role the emerging fields of sustainability science and Education for Sustainable Development can play within the transition to more sustainable universities. It aims to contribute to a more holistic perception of SD and examines some of the trends being observed in the higher education sector. Universities are challenged to reflect about educational objectives and strategic goals in their sustainability implementation processes, if they aim to educate the academic community beyond eco-efficiency and recycling. ESD and sustainability science are normative academic fields, action-oriented and close to society. Along with universities as democratic institutions, these fields constitute essential vehicles to investigate, test, and develop conditions for truly transformative change.

This paper examines the contribution of resilience thinking for social-ecological systems (SESs) in understanding sustainability and the need to preserve natural resources in the face of external perturbations. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, the literature survey shows the increased importance of resilience and its integration into the interdisciplinary area of sustainability studies. By exploring the links between resilience and sustainability, the analysis finds that these two concepts share some similarities and also highlight the differences. The discussion of resilience indicators, measuring criteria, models and management issues reveals how resilience contributes to sustainability science and in what ways the concept can be used to measure resilience in terms of sustainability. Most existing studies emphasise the ecological aspects of resilience, but only by including human activities in the modelling can resilience thinking inform sustainability in a meaningful way. The paper concludes defining issues requiring further investigation, such as identifying and managing the drivers and key elements of resilience in SESs, exploring the dynamics between critical variables of SESs and the system feedbacks to external perturbations, as well as evaluating policies and engaging stakeholders for building resilience.

The Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework has been used by environmental agencies and others to assess environmental challenges and policy responses. However, in doing so, social justice or equity issues tend to come as an afterthought, while there is evidence that environmental challenges and policy responses are not equity (including gender-) neutral. Hence, this paper addresses the question: why should, and how can, equity issues and environmental justice be incorporated into the DPSIR framework? It presents a structure for including equity within DPSIR and applies it. It reviews the literature to bring together data that demonstrates that there is a clear equity perspective along the entire DPSIR analysis. It concludes that although individual environmental policies may succeed to achieve their specific goal in the short term; if they ignore the equity aspects, the policy strategies as a whole are likely to be environmentally unjust, and lead to exclusive and unsustainable development, which, in turn, could further exacerbate environmental challenges. This highlights the need for an integrated approach in efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable development.

Envisioning how a desirable future might look is a long-standing effort in human evolution and social change. Utopian thought and visions provide direction for actions and behavior; more so, they create identity and community. Accordingly, the discourse on sustainability and sustainable development has recognized that positive visions about our societies' future are an influential, if not indispensable, stimulus for change. Visioning is, thus, considered a key method in sustainability research and problem solving, for instance, in transformational sustainability science or in planning for urban sustainability. Yet, quality criteria for sustainability visions and guidelines on how to rigorously craft such visions are scattered over different strands of the literature and some are insufficiently developed. The goal of this article is to review and synthesize such quality criteria and design guidelines to inform sustainability visioning methodology. The review provides a concise reference framework for sustainability students, researchers, and professionals on how to enhance their sustainability visioning practices.