The conflict between capital-intensive agriculture, often called industrial agriculture, and sustainable farming is ongoing, and not because of Western European countries, where intensification is increasingly sustainable. It is caused by several million small farms in Central and Eastern Europe that must choose a long-term development path. This is also a dilemma for agricultural policy: Are small

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a vision for achieving a sustainable future. Reliable, timely, comprehensive, and consistent data are critical for measuring progress towards, and ultimately achieving, the SDGs. Data from citizen science represent one new source of data that could be used for SDG reporting and monitoring. However, information is still lacking regarding the current and

Sustainability education plays a pivotal role in driving change in the present and shaping our global future. This study explores the process of transformative learning among 67 preservice elementary teachers (PSTs) enrolled in a sustainability science course by analyzing six assignments submitted throughout the semester. Using a combined deductive–inductive coding procedure guided by transformative

Sustainability science seeks to extend scientific investigation into domains characterized by a distinct problem-solving agenda, physical and social complexity, and complex moral and ethical landscapes. In this endeavor, it arguably pushes scientific investigation beyond its usual comfort zones, raising fundamental issues about how best to structure such investigation. Philosophers of science have

The combined and interacting effects of land-use change, resource extraction and climate change threaten the sustainability of millions of mainly smallholder farms in tropical agroforested landscapes. In many of these landscapes, coordinated action among stakeholders at landscape level would help to address challenges such as pests and diseases, price crises and climate change. However, methods to

This paper attempts to identify and assess the distinct stakeholders’ perspectives regarding Five Finger Mountain Forest Ecosystem Services (MFESs) at the landscape scale in Kyrenia Region of the Northern Cyprus. The objectives of the study were (1) to identify and assess the stakeholders’ perspectives of MFESs and (2) to record the non-wood forest products harvested and associated traditional ecological

The IPBES Framework aims to allow room for a plurality of values and recently proposed a move from `Ecosystem Services’ to `Nature’s Contributions to People’. O’Connor and Kenter (2019) argue that both approaches still disregard nature as an end in itself. Therefore, they propose a new conceptualisation of `intrinsic value’ and a new approach, labelled the `Life Framework of Values’. This work is highly

Traditional forms of agroforestry are often recognized as exemplar systems that successfully integrate food production, biodiversity conservation and high cultural values. However many traditional agroforestry systems in Europe are in decline or are threatened and the perspectives of local stakeholders on the production, management, socio-economic, and environmental dimensions of such systems are not

Urgent sustainability challenges require effective leadership for inter- and trans-disciplinary (ITD) institutions. Based on the diverse experiences of 20 ITD institutional leaders and specific case studies, this article distills key lessons learned from multiple pathways to building successful programs. The lessons reflect both the successes and failures our group has experienced, to suggest how to

Achieving sustainable development globally requires multilevel and interdisciplinary efforts and perspectives. Global goals shape priorities and actions at multiple scales, creating cascading impacts realized at the local level through the direction of financial resources and implementation of programs intended to achieve progress towards these metrics. We explore ways to localize global goals to best

In the United States of America, urban areas of the arid Southwest are prone to drought risk and changing precipitation patterns; future water supplies are uncertain. A collaborative working group of researchers and practitioners developed alternative future scenarios for 2060—sustainable water futures—that incorporate standard and novel water-adaptation strategies for the Phoenix metropolitan area

Transdisciplinary sustainability research (TSR) is essential to better understand and tackle wicked problems such as climate change and realisation of sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, despite the normative nobility, a significant share of these initiatives seems to remain merely rhetorical that fail to address both local level socio-environmental crises and global catastrophes such as

The multi-functional agroforestry system associating rainfed lowland rice and sugar palm (RLR-SP) hedges has been sustaining emblematic cultural landscapes in the Indianized countries of Southeast Asia for centuries. Often established in areas facing very constrained soil–water conditions, it played a crucial role in the agro-ecological, social and economic resilience of these agrarian systems. Recent

Agroforestry systems (AFS) are presented as systems likely to meet a variety of interests from diverse stakeholders embodied in sectoral policies such as forestry or environment policies. However, they are in a process of being institutionalized in Europe through specific policy instruments mostly within agricultural policies. In this context, we investigated the agroforestry policyscape, meaning the

Coastal regions are most susceptible to the effects of climate change. To increase infrastructure-resilience of such regions, reduce livelihood-vulnerability of people living in such regions and equip them with appropriate livelihood strategies, governments have invested heavily in coastal infrastructure such as polders. This research is focused on the polders of Bangladesh. The effectiveness of Bangladesh’s

In Reykjavík, Iceland, the city’s oldest cemetery was exhumed in favor of yet another tourist hotel despite local cultural leaders’ objections and existing concerns that new hotels already exceeded projected demand. For Icelanders, cemeteries are important material and symbolic markers of the nation’s history and heritage and cherished contributors to Icelandic cultural identity. The anomalous destruction

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015, succeeding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While the MDGs focused on improving well-being in the developing world, the 17 SDGs address all countries and aim at reconciling economic and social with ecological goals. We adopt a social ecology perspective and critically reflect on the SDGs’ potential for monitoring, supporting, and

Scattered woody vegetation generates multiple socio-economic and environmental benefits to the rural communities. Disregarding values associated with woody vegetation on pastures can decouple individuals from traditional management practices, resulting in the loss of biodiversity-rich farming landscapes. Here we employ semi-structured interviews and network analysis to understand the value networks

Agroforestry landscapes in the Mediterranean Basin have emerged in a co-evolution between humans and nature and provide numerous ecosystem services to society. Tree crops are iconic elements of these landscapes and have frequently been managed in a sustainable way over centuries, shaping multifunctional landscapes and local people’s cultural identities. However, many Mediterranean tree-crop landscapes

Recent evidence shows that climate change is leading to irreversible and existential impacts on vulnerable communities and countries across the globe. Among other effects, this has given rise to public debate and engagement around notions of climate crisis and emergency. The Loss and Damage (L&D) policy debate has emphasized these aspects over the last three decades. Yet, despite institutionalization

Exploring the ‘Safe Operating Space’ of nations are important for devising suitable strategies for the effectual implementation of UN-Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). In this context, the present study attempts to ascertain the environmental and social challenges hindering sustainable development (SD) in India along with linking these challenges to the SDGs and policy mechanisms in place for

Global conservation efforts rely largely on effective protected areas. Recently, it was shown that one-third of the world’s protected land is under intense human pressure. However, this proportion varies substantially across countries. Some countries are more successful than others in keeping their protected areas relatively free from intense human pressure. In this study, I explore the possible reasons

In the original publication of the article, two of the contributors’ names (Darrell Brown, Kim Heavener) were missing in the acknowledgement section. The correct acknowledgement is provided below.

Under the session “Quantifcation of the population”, the following sentence Population curves of Japan SSP1 and Japan SSP2 are close, because the diference between high fertility and medium setting is not remarkable by NIPSSR.

Many problems we face today, including sustainability issues, are complex and encompass intertwined systems. As such, they are difficult to understand and define due to the pluralism of values within society, which also makes it hard to reach agreement on these issues. Technocratic solutions then may be perceived as improper by stakeholders, detaching citizens from urgent issues. Inter- and transdisciplinary

Community-based projects with inclusive stakeholder engagement are increasingly important to achieve robust outcomes in the science and management of ‘wicked’ urban ecosystem service challenges. We summarize lessons learned from a transdisciplinary, team-based doctoral education program that engaged students in research on such multi-stakeholder, complex problems. The key lessons are (a) problem-based

Sustainability science is an emerging, free-standing scientific discipline. It has introduced a new approach to both sustainability research and educational programmes, while evoking novel perspectives to stronger societal contextualization. Among several other areas of sustainability research, competencies for sustainability have become a focal topic of sustainability education research. This research

With the growth of data, data-intensive approaches for sustainability are becoming widespread and have been endorsed by various stakeholders. To understand their implications, in this paper, data-intensive approaches for sustainability will be explored by conducting an extensive review. The current data-intensive approaches are defined as an amalgamation of traditional data-collection methods, such

Climate change is projected to have large impacts on natural capital and ecosystem services under scenarios of the IPCC. In the summer of 2016, elevated seawater temperatures triggered mass coral bleaching in Sekisei Lagoon, southern Japan. Based on data from field surveys and relevant websites, we mapped potential stocks of four major ecosystem services (fisheries production, aquarium fish production

This paper explores the role of metaphor in cognition, outlining how the machine metaphor came to dominate and the problematic assumptions for culture/nature relationships and the consequences for the environment that underpin this metaphor. It then argues that the machine metaphor needs to be complemented by an animistic metaphor, which embodies and underpins indigenous relationships to nature, using

Shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) are alternative global development scenarios focused on the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. However, global SSPs would need revised versions for regional or local assessment, which is the so-called extended version, because global narratives may lack region-specific important drivers, national policy perspectives, and unification of data for each

Homegardens have long been recognized for contributing to household food security, nutritional status, and ecological sustainability in especially poor, rural areas in low-income countries. However, as markets and policies drive the commercialization of food and farming systems, and of rural livelihoods in general, it becomes increasingly difficult for small-holder farmers to maintain homegarden plots

The three pillars of sustainability framework is an applied and solutions oriented approach to sustainable development, which at the broadest and most important scale supports the creation of new economic and political institutions that embed (from start to finish) the key inputs, stakeholders, and incentive structures necessary for sustainability planning and projects to be feasible and successful

The effective and appropriate bridging of Western science with traditional or Indigenous knowledge is an ongoing discussion in the literature and in practice. The discourse transitioned from separate knowledge system to knowledge integration and most recently to knowledge co-production. We argue it is the moral and ethical responsibility of Western scientists working in and with Indigenous communities

Sustainability is a complex challenge that social marketing can assist in achieving. However, with its multidimensional composition and immense depth, the language of sustainability could be misinterpreted and misguide interventions. Examining macro-level literature and reliable yet different sources for information is key to developing effective social marketing programmes. In search of overlapping

The Anthropocene presents a set of interlinked sustainability challenges for humanity. The United Nations 2030 Agenda has identified 17 specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a way to confront these challenges. However, local initiatives have long been addressing issues connected to these goals in a myriad of diverse and innovative ways. We present a new approach to assess how local initiatives

This paper argues that what we do to conserve biodiversity depends on how we know biodiversity. The former Chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is concerned that national policymakers may not take the findings of this global assessment (GA) seriously because of ‘squabbling scientists.’ The paper explores the contentious issues in IPBES

The social relations and biophysical flows that link water, food, and energy systems are said to form a ‘nexus’. Efforts to steer or otherwise exert influence on decisions that impact upon these nexus links, including to ignore them, take place at multiple levels, vary in complexity, and have implications for who benefits and who is burdened by those relations and flows. This paper examines how nexus

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) includes specific targets addressing factors of importance to reduced gender inequality and promotes gender development. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has reported on gender inequality and gender development indexes based on available data relating to specific SDGs, the indexes being calculated through an elaborate aggregation process. The

Decision-making barriers challenge port administrators to adapt and build resilience to natural hazards. Heavy rains, storms, sea level rise (SLR), and extreme heat can damage the critical coastal infrastructure upon which coastal communities depend. There is limited understanding of what impedes port decision makers from investing resources in climate and extreme weather adaptations. Through semi-structured

Biomass-based negative emission technologies (NETs) such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and afforestation/reforestation (AR) are regarded as important options to achieve the 2 °C and 1.5 °C targets stipulated in the Paris agreement, but the feasibility of their large-scale deployments remains very uncertain. This study focused on the speed of expansions of land-use area related

Previous studies have demonstrated the role of nature connectedness in promoting human well-being. However, recent studies put emphasis on understanding the underlying mechanism that drives the association between nature connectedness and well-being, mainly mental health. Place attachment is one of the place-based socio-psychological concepts that is believed to explain this association. Analysis of

The paper introduces a heuristic framework for conducting joint problem framing (JPF) processes in transdisciplinary research (TD). JPF is an essential element in confronting real-world problems, especially in the realm of sustainability (Hirsch Hadorn et al. in Ecol Econ 60(1):119–128, 2006; Pohl and Hirsch Hadorn in Principles for designing transdisciplinary research, Oekomm, München, 2007; Rossini

Scholars have argued that the sharing economy represents a transitional pathway to sustainability. The growth, however, of multi-national giants, such as Airbnb or Uber, has created new environmental, social, and economic problems and led many to question the dominant form of the sharing economy. In this paper, we study a transition within a transition—that is the emergence of a new niche of cooperative

Abstract In the face of unsustainable land-use changes including intensified agricultural production and land abandonment, agroforestry systems have the potential to support a diversity of social and ecological functions in agricultural landscapes. Mediterranean agroforestry landscapes have been conserved through traditional practices, and new concepts are necessary to assure the viability of these

Anthropogenic changes are accelerating and threaten the future of life on earth. While the proximate mechanisms of these anthropogenic changes are well studied (e.g., climate change, biodiversity loss, population growth), the evolutionary causality of these anthropogenic changes have been largely ignored. Anthroecological theory (AET) proposes that the ultimate cause of anthropogenic environmental

Abstract Transitional peri-urban contexts are frontiers for sustainable development where land-use change involves negotiation and contestation between diverse interest groups. Multiple, complex trade-offs between outcomes emerge which have both negative and positive impacts on progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These trade-offs are often overlooked in policy and planning

Information associated with the assessment of graduate attributes, in the workplace, is limited. Yet if the many environmental and social problems that confront communities are to be managed, we need to ensure that graduates, who have been exposed to sustainability insights through their studies, are applying those insights. To contribute to information for the future this paper reports the development

This manuscript explores the possibilities and challenges of art–science integration in facilitating collaborative sustainability action in local settings. To date, much sustainability education is prescriptive, rather than participatory, and most integrated art–science programming aims for content learning, rather than societal change. What this means is that learners are more often taught “what is”

Abstract Only 10 years remain to achieve all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) globally, so there is a growing need to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of action by targeting multiple SDGs. The SDGs were conceived as an ‘indivisible whole’, but interactions between SDGs need to be better understood. Several previous assessments have begun to explore interactions including synergies and

Marine and coastal tourism constitutes one of the largest and fastest-growing segments in tourism. Growth in marine tourism is now furthered through the ‘blue growth’ imperative, which this article problematises. The paper argues that there are already existing sustainability issues related to the marine tourism sector. These problems could be exacerbated if growth is additionally boosted. Since the

Abstract Food production depends upon the adequate provision of underpinning ecosystem services, such as pollination. Paradoxically, conventional farming practices are undermining these services and resulting in degraded soils, polluted waters, greenhouse gas emissions and massive loss of biodiversity including declines in pollinators. In essence, farming is undermining the ecosystem services it relies

Abstract Japan is faced with sustainability challenges such as resource security and depopulation. Well-coordinated, multifaceted actions including a shift from imported fossil to locally available renewable resources and empowering of rural areas are vital in tackling these challenges. Here, we present our co-learning approach to practice the multifaceted actions with a case study on Tanegashima,

The idea that universities should become entrepreneurial, commercialized, private commodities or should serve politicians and governmental agencies has been promoted by the university–industry–government relationship-based Triple Helix approach and is reality in many places. In contrast, a reemphasis on universities serving the public good has been demanded by proponents of transdisciplinary sustainability

Abstract In an earlier work, we suggested that connection, compassion and creativity could be used as key analytical dimensions of transformative place-based learning (Pisters et al. in Emot Sp Soc 34(8):100578, 2019). This analytical framework was created to study processes of place-based transformative learning which evoke shifts in our consciousness. This inner change might well be critical in the

Abstract There are many definitions of transdisciplinary, and several typologies. Particularly, Scholz and Steiner (Sustain Sci 10(4):527–544, 2015a) distinguish a theoretical “Mode 1”, largely inspired by quantum theory, and a practical “Mode 2” transdisciplinarity involving multi-stakeholder approaches. So far, Modes 1 and 2 have been developed independently. In this paper, I discuss the potential

Abstract Enabling resources are the array of tangible and intangible assets that social entrepreneurs mobilize or create to bring forward novel place-based initiatives, to respond to unmet sustainability challenges and ideally contribute to virtuous processes of socio-economic transformation. Understanding the role of resources in constraining or enabling the development of social enterprises holds

Abstract The need to train sustainability scientists and engineers to address the complex problems of our world has never been more apparent. We organized an interdisciplinary team of instructors from universities in the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island who designed, taught, and assessed a multi-university course to develop the core competencies necessary for advancing sustainability

Abstract Scenario development helps people think about a broad variety of possible futures; however, the global environmental change community has thus far developed few positive scenarios for the future of the planet and humanity. Those that have been developed tend to focus on the role of a few common, large-scale external drivers, such as technology or environmental policy, even though pathways

Abstract While the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015, establishes an ambitious set of goals, targets and indicators for supporting global sustainability, greater conceptual clarity is required to measure implementation. A key UN Target (6.5) for implementing sustainable development goal (SDG) 6 is to ‘implement integrated water resources management (IWRM) at all levels’