Introduction to Sustainability and Sustainable Development

초록

Sustainability or sustainable development is a complex concept. To put it simply, sustainability, and its antecedent term, sustainable development, mean different things to different authors. This chapter aims to elucidate the diversified aspects of sustainability. In this chapter some basic concepts and definitions of terms concerning sustainability are explained; the history and evolution of the sustainable development concepts and allied issues of sustainability are illustrated; a brief discussion about the challenges faced by sustainability is provided; and some solutions are outlined. Bottom-up and top-down momentum (resilience) and actions, which are often local in context (adaptation) to produce sustainability, are also discussed in this chapter. A key challenge of sustainability lies in connecting the processes of ecosystem functioning to the operation of the accompanying social system. Thus, in this chapter the nature of this complex system is discussed highlighting the economical, ecological, social, technological and systems perspectives of sustainable development. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.

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