Sustainable Development 2400-ZEWW625
1. Basic ecology:
- crucial terms,
- ecosystem,
- biosphere,
- material flows and energy.
2. Ecosystem properties:
- ecological factors,
- succession and climax,
- homeostasis,
- trophic chains,
- circulation of materia,
- energy in ecosystem,
- optimal circumstances,
- ecological barriers.
3. Biosphere as a system:
- energy,
- entropy,
- biogeophysical cycles,
- evolution and adaptation.
4. Environmental impact:
- conflict between economy and nature,
- environmental degradation,
- environmental pressure,
- limits to growth.
5. Natural resources:
- non-exhaustible and exhaustible resources,
- renewable and non-renewable resources,
- ecological services,
- physical planning.
6. Natural resources management:
- sustainability principle,
- maximum sustainable yield,
- Hotelling’s rule,
- future generations,
- dynamics of exploatation.
7. Economic valuation:
- environment in economic terms,
- total economic value,
- declared and revealed preferences,
- extended CBA.
8. Theory of sustainable development:
- man-made, social and natural capital,
- problem of substitution,
- sustainability of renewable resources,
- substitution of non-renewable resources,
- weak and strong sustainability.
9. International forum:
- global problems,
- problem of welfare and equity,
- Stockholm Conference (1972),
- "World Conservation Strategy" (1980),
- "World Commission on Environment and Development"(1983),
- "Our Common Future" & Brundtland Report (1987),
- "Agenda 21" & Rio de Janeiro (1992).
10. Institutions for sustainable development:
- UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD),
- UN Development Programme (UNDP)
- UN Environment Programme (UNEP),
- World Bank and Global Environmental Facility (GEF),
- European Union.
11. Potential guidelines:
- change in consumption patterns,
- raise in economic efficiency,
- financing substitution,
- environmental pressure under control,
- pricing and application of economic instruments.
12. Some paradigms for the future:
- "adaptive management" (Costanza, Holling),
- "veil of ignorance towards time" (Rawles),
- "intergenerational equity" (Page),
- "transferable development rights" (Panayotou).
13. Sustainability indicators:
- pressure-state-reaction concept,
- exemplary indicators of OECD and UN CSD,
- system of indicators for EU,
- indicators for UK and Norway,
- local communities’ indicators.
14/15. Aggregated sustainability indicators:
- modified GDP,
- "Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare",
- "Genuine Savings",
- "Genuine Progress Indicator”,
- "Total Material Requirement",
- "Ecological Footprint".
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
A. Knowledge
1. Student knows basic ecology. She/he knows ecosystem and ecosystem properties including succession and climax, homeostasis, trophic chains, circulation of materia, energy flows. Students knows biosphere as a system with regard to biogeophysical cycles, evolution and adaptation.
2. Student knows conflict between economy and nature, scale and characteristic of environmental degradation, and limits to growth.
3. Students knows natural resources (renewable and non-renewable) management. She/he knows maximum sustainable yield and Hotelling’s rule.
4. Student knows economic valuation, especially methods based on declared and revealed preferences. She/he knows extended CBA.
5. Student knows the theory of sustainable development (weak and strong sustainability). She/he knows the problem of natural capital depreciation and substitution of non-renewable resources.
6. Student knows international context including political debates and seminal documents like Brundtland Report and “Agenda 21”.
7. Student knows the measurement problem and systems of sustainable development indicators proposed by OECD, UN CSD, EU.
8. Student knows the national systems of sustainability indicators for UK and Norway. She/he knows also selected local communities’ indicators.
9. Student knows aggregated sustainability indicators: modified GDP, Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, Genuine Savings, Genuine Progress Indicator, Total Material Requirement, Ecological Footprint.
(S2A_W02; S2A_W03; S2A_W05; S2A_W07; S2A_W08; S2A_W09)
B. Skills
1. Student can understand and analyze problems dealing with conflicts between economy, society and natural environment.
2. Student can recognize an effective sustainable development policy.
3. Student can measure and evaluate sustainable development. She/he can construct indicators or interpret well available sustainability indicators.
(S2A_U01; S2A_U03; S2A_U05; S2A_U06; S2A_U08)
C. Social competences
1. Student is aware that sustainable development is essential for a long-term development.
2. Student can understand and apply the idea of sustainability in her/his active life.
(S2A_K03; S2A_K04; S2A_K05; S2A_K06)
Assessment criteria
Evaluation of the course will be based on oral and PowerPoint individual presentation
Bibliography
REQUIRED
Bell S., Morse S., Sustainability indicators. Measuring the immeasurable, Earthscan, London, 2000.
Lawn Ph., Sustainable development indicators in ecological economics. Edward-Elgar, Cheltenham, 2007.
Perrings Ch., Ecological economics. Volume 4: Sustainability. Sage, London, 2008.
SUGGESTED
Atkinson G., Dietz S., Neumayer E., Handbook of Sustainable Development. Edward-Elgar, Cheltenham, 2006.
Botkin D., Keller E., Environmental Science. Wiley, New York, 1995.
Bell S., Morse S., Measuring sustainability. Learning from doing, Earthscan, London, 2003.
Pearce D., Blueprint 3. Measuring sustainable development. Earthscan, London, 1993.
Peterson del Mar D., 2006. Environmentalism. Pearson Education Limited, London.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: