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From climate change to GM foods, we are increasingly confronted with complex, interconnected social and environmental problems that span disciplines, knowledge bases and value systems. This book offers a transdisciplinary, open approach for those working towards resolving these 'wicked' problems and highlights the crucial role of this 'transdisciplinary imagination' in addressing the shift to sustainable futures. Tackling Wicked Problems provides readers with a framework and practical examples that will guide the design and conduct of their own open-ended enquiries. In this approach, academic disciplines are combined with personal, local and strategic understanding and researchers are required to recognise multiple knowledge cultures, accept the inevitability of uncertainty, and clarify their own and others' ethical positions. The authors then comment on fifteen practical examples of how researchers have engaged with the opportunities and challenges of conducting transdisciplinary inquiries. The book gives those who are grappling with complex problems innovative methods of inquiry that will allow them to work collaboratively towards long-term solutions.

The Earth's human population is expected to pass eight billion by the year 2025, while rapid growth in the global economy will spur ever increasing demands for natural resources. The world will consequently face growing scarcities of such vital renewable resources as cropland, fresh water, and forests. Thomas Homer-Dixon argues in this sobering book that these environmental scarcities will have profound social consequences--contributing to insurrections, ethnic clashes, urban unrest, and other forms of civil violence, especially in the developing world. Homer-Dixon synthesizes work from a wide range of international research projects to develop a detailed model of the sources of environmental scarcity. He refers to water shortages in China, population growth in sub-Saharan Africa, and land distribution in Mexico, for example, to show that scarcities stem from the degradation and depletion of renewable resources, the increased demand for these resources, and/or their unequal distribution. He shows that these scarcities can lead to deepened poverty, large-scale migrations, sharpened social cleavages, and weakened institutions. And he describes the kinds of violence that can result from these social effects, arguing that conflicts in Chiapas, Mexico and ongoing turmoil in many African and Asian countries, for instance, are already partly a consequence of scarcity. Homer-Dixon is careful to point out that the effects of environmental scarcity are indirect and act in combination with other social, political, and economic stresses. He also acknowledges that human ingenuity can reduce the likelihood of conflict, particularly in countries with efficient markets, capable states, and an educated populace. But he argues that the violent consequences of scarcity should not be underestimated--especially when about half the world's population depends directly on local renewables for their day-to-day well-being. In the next decades, he writes, growing scarcities will affect billions of people with unprecedented severity and at an unparalleled scale and pace. Clearly written and forcefully argued, this book will become the standard work on the complex relationship between environmental scarcities and human violence.

Public awareness and knowledge of environmental protection are crucial to avoid environmental pollutions. Lack of relevant scientific principles and lack of public awareness of environmental or other projects are hindrances to controlling environmental pollution. The objective of the study was to identify the importance of public awareness in environmental pollution management. Environmental education and public awareness are crucial to avoid environmental pollutions. The study aims to analyze public awareness of environmental protection. The study was conducted in Sharana, the center of Paktika province, and was attended by 71 students from the Paktika Higher Education Institute’s Education Faculty. Questionnaires and field observations have been selected as methodologies for this research. The results of the study show that 59.2 percent of survey participants consider public awareness and 35.2 percent think that enforcement of environmental laws is important. People in Paktika do not take part in environmental activities due to a lack of public awareness and throw away pollutants everywhere. If this situation continues, it is not far off that it will turn into a disaster.

How the global change science community is currently portraying the character and role of the social sciences and humanities is problematic, according to this Perspective. Measures needed to bring other visions and voices into the debate about global environmental change are identified. Calls for more broad-based, integrated, useful knowledge now abound in the world of global environmental change science. They evidence many scientists' desire to help humanity confront the momentous biophysical implications of its own actions. But they also reveal a limited conception of social science and virtually ignore the humanities. They thereby endorse a stunted conception of 'human dimensions' at a time when the challenges posed by global environmental change are increasing in magnitude, scale and scope. Here, we make the case for a richer conception predicated on broader intellectual engagement and identify some preconditions for its practical fulfilment. Interdisciplinary dialogue, we suggest, should engender plural representations of Earth's present and future that are reflective of divergent human values and aspirations. In turn, this might insure publics and decision-makers against overly narrow conceptions of what is possible and desirable as they consider the profound questions raised by global environmental change.

Extreme weather, rising seas and degraded coastal ecosystems all play a part in escalating the risks that coastal regions are exposed to. Now research into hazards facing the contiguous USA indicates that the likelihood and magnitude of losses can be reduced by intact reefs and coastal vegetation. Extreme weather, sea-level rise and degraded coastal ecosystems are placing people and property at greater risk of damage from coastal hazards 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 . The likelihood and magnitude of losses may be reduced by intact reefs and coastal vegetation 1 , especially when those habitats fringe vulnerable communities and infrastructure. Using five sea-level-rise scenarios, we calculate a hazard index for every 1 km 2 of the United States coastline. We use this index to identify the most vulnerable people and property as indicated by being in the upper quartile of hazard for the nation’s coastline. The number of people, poor families, elderly and total value of residential property that are most exposed to hazards can be reduced by half if existing coastal habitats remain fully intact. Coastal habitats defend the greatest number of people and total property value in Florida, New York and California. Our analyses deliver the first national map of risk reduction owing to natural habitats and indicates where conservation and restoration of reefs and vegetation have the greatest potential to protect coastal communities.

Groundwater is of crucial importance for water and food security and for sustaining ecosystems. This Review assesses the likely impacts of climate change on groundwater and groundwater-driven feedbacks to the climate system. As the world's largest distributed store of fresh water, ground water plays a central part in sustaining ecosystems and enabling human adaptation to climate variability and change. The strategic importance of ground water for global water and food security will probably intensify under climate change as more frequent and intense climate extremes (droughts and floods) increase variability in precipitation, soil moisture and surface water. Here we critically review recent research assessing the impacts of climate on ground water through natural and human-induced processes as well as through groundwater-driven feedbacks on the climate system. Furthermore, we examine the possible opportunities and challenges of using and sustaining groundwater resources in climate adaptation strategies, and highlight the lack of groundwater observations, which, at present, limits our understanding of the dynamic relationship between ground water and climate.

The study aims to analyse the awareness levels of university students towards the environmental problems in terms of the variables of faculty and gender. The study was conducted with 149 undergraduate students from the faculty of engineering, health sciences and educational sciences in North Cyprus. The research conducted with survey study and identified the awareness levels of students towards environmental problems through “Environmental Problems Awareness Scale”, developed by Güven and Aydoǧdu [1] in consideration with the cognitive steps according to the Bloom Taxonomy. In addition to descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and MANOVA analyses were used for the analysis of data. The study concluded that the total students’ scores for awareness of environmental problems show statistically significant difference based on gender, and no significant difference based on faculties. Additionally, the factor scores of the scale have statistically significant difference based on faculties, and no significant difference based on gender.

The future sustainability of global fisheries is unknown. Models of physical, biological and human responses to climate change are applied to 67 national exclusive economic zones, which cover 60% of global fishery catches. This allows prediction of climate change impacts on countries with different dependencies on fisheries. Growing human populations and changing dietary preferences are increasing global demands for fish 1 , adding pressure to concerns over fisheries sustainability 2 . Here we develop and link models of physical, biological and human responses to climate change in 67 marine national exclusive economic zones, which yield approximately 60% of global fish catches, to project climate change yield impacts in countries with different dependencies on marine fisheries 3 . Predicted changes in fish production indicate increased productivity at high latitudes and decreased productivity at low/mid latitudes, with considerable regional variations. With few exceptions, increases and decreases in fish production potential by 2050 are estimated to be < 10% (mean +3.4%) from present yields. Among the nations showing a high dependency on fisheries 3 , climate change is predicted to increase productive potential in West Africa and decrease it in South and Southeast Asia. Despite projected human population increases and assuming that per capita fish consumption rates will be maintained 1 , ongoing technological development in the aquaculture industry suggests that projected global fish demands in 2050 could be met, thus challenging existing predictions of inevitable shortfalls in fish supply by the mid-twenty-first century 4 . This conclusion, however, is contingent on successful implementation of strategies for sustainable harvesting and effective distribution of wild fish products from nations and regions with a surplus to those with a deficit. Changes in management effectiveness 2 and trade practices 5 will remain the main influence on realized gains or losses in global fish production.

Tourism development is recognised as an essential tool in promoting economic growth; however, it may also contribute to environmental degradation. Increased pressure for reducing CO 2 emissions poses new challenges to policy-makers who try to promote economic growth and environmental protection in tandem. Since 2010, 19 scenic areas in China have been declared as low-carbon tourism demonstration zones. It follows that investigating whether CO 2 emissions originating in the tourism industry could, in fact, compromise sustainable development in China becomes an essential area of study. Whilst this is a key concern to society, there are only a limited number of studies that analyse the environmental impact of tourism and the validity of the tourism-led-growth hypothesis. This study considers both domestic and international tourism and explicitly tests the relationship among tourism development, economic growth and CO 2 emissions in China, employing a panel vector autoregressive model and utilising regional data between 2006 and 2017. Results show that the development of either international or domestic tourism contributes to economic growth, however, at the expense of the environment.

An assessment of economic flood risk trends across Europe reveals high current and future stress on risk financing schemes. The magnitude and distribution of losses can be contained by investing in flood protection, increasing insurance coverage or by expanding public compensation funds. However, these climate change adaptation instruments have vastly different efficiency, equity and acceptability implications. Moreover, the spatial variation in disaster risk can necessitate cross-subsidies between individual countries in the European Union. Recent major flood disasters have shown that single extreme events can affect multiple countries simultaneously 1 , 2 , 3 , which puts high pressure on trans-national risk reduction and risk transfer mechanisms 4 , 5 , 6 . So far, little is known about such flood hazard interdependencies across regions 7 , 8 and the corresponding joint risks at regional to continental scales 1 , 9 . Reliable information on correlated loss probabilities is crucial for developing robust insurance schemes 5 and public adaptation funds 10 , and for enhancing our understanding of climate change impacts 9 , 11 , 12 . Here we show that extreme discharges are strongly correlated across European river basins. We present probabilistic trends in continental flood risk, and demonstrate that observed extreme flood losses could more than double in frequency by 2050 under future climate change and socio-economic development. We suggest that risk management for these increasing losses is largely feasible, and we demonstrate that risk can be shared by expanding risk transfer financing, reduced by investing in flood protection, or absorbed by enhanced solidarity between countries. We conclude that these measures have vastly different efficiency, equity and acceptability implications, which need to be taken into account in broader consultation, for which our analysis provides a basis.