In 2016, the World Health Organization declared that ‘Health is one of the most effective markers of any city's successful sustainable development’ (World Health Organisation, 2016). With estimates that around 6.7 billion people will live in cities by 2050, 21st century city planning decisions will play a critical role in achieving the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They will determine the city structure and access to health-enhancing (or health-damaging) urban environments, and ultimately lifestyle choices that impact both individual and planetary health.
This chapter focuses in the importance of freshwater for domestic use, which is critical for maintaining human health and well-being. As the human population has grown, the pressure of domestic use on freshwater systems has increased. Despite mounting concerns over diminishing water quantity and quality, new opportunities for safe and accessible domestic water use are being implemented.
Indigenous peoples globally have high exposure to environmental change and are often considered an “at-risk” population, although there is growing evidence of their resilience. In this Perspective, we examine the common factors affecting this resilience by illustrating how the interconnected roles of place, agency, institutions, collective action, Indigenous knowledge, and learning help Indigenous peoples to cope and adapt to environmental change.
The SDG Impact of COVID-19 podcast series gathers expert opinion exploring the impact of COVID-19 on the Sustainable Development Goals. In this segment, we get the view of Virginia Gardiner, Founder and CEO of Loowatt.
The SDG Impact of COVID-19 podcast series gathers expert opinion exploring the impact of COVID-19 on the Sustainable Development Goals. In advance of World Environment Day on June 5th, we get the view of Dr Sam Scheiner, Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Biodiversity.
Improving bus stops by providing shelters, seating, signage, and sidewalks is relatively inexpensive and popular among riders and local officials. Making such improvements, however, is not often a priority for U.S. transit providers because of competing demands for capital funds and a perception that amenities are not tied to measurable increases in system effectiveness or efficiency.
This chapter advances SDG goals 7 and 13 by exploring ideas to reduce energy consumption on and in buildings.
This book chapter advances SDGs 11, 12, and 15 by discussing the key drivers, obstacles, and opportunities in plastics sustainability, offering a balanced analysis of current challenges and solutions supporting the more sustainable production, use, and re-use of plastics, which are valuable materials with critical applications across civilization.
The Paris Agreement to keep global temperature increase to well-below 2 °C and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C requires to formulate ambitious climate-change mitigation scenarios to reduce CO2 emissions and to enhance carbon sequestration. These scenarios likely require significant land-use change. Failing to mitigate climate change will result in an unprecedented warming with significant biodiversity loss. The mitigation potential on land is high. However, how land-based mitigation options potentially affect biodiversity is poorly understood.
Urban expansion is considered to be one of the main threats to global biodiversity yet some pollinator groups, particularly bees, can do well in urban areas. Recent studies indicate that both local and landscape-level drivers can influence urban pollinator communities, with local floral resources and the amount of impervious cover in the landscape affecting pollinator abundance, richness and community composition. Urban intensification, chemicals, climate change and increased honey bee colony densities all negatively affect urban pollinators.
