Course: Sustainability

Course overview:

This course introduces students to the theory, principles, and practices of sustainability. This course will include discussions on maintaining ecological and environmental health, creating economic welfare, and ensuring social justice.

The course will provide you with the necessary theoretical and practical background, knowledge and communication and hand on work skills for future career in this important subject area, as a researcher, agronomist, adviser, policymaker.

Objectives of the Programme Module is:

1. Discuss key concepts and theories of sustainability science.

2. Critically read the academic literature about environment and society relationships.

3. Analyze examples of change in individual societies from the perspectives of sustainability science.

Student's obligation

Students are expected to attend all lectures during the semester. They will be assumed to be aware of all information and notices presented in the lectures, and complete all assessments including (Exams, practical works, assignments, reports, essays, seminar and presentation).

These activities or exercises serve to reinforce student comprehension of the subject matter or skill through active participation (Group projects, Seminar discussion and Presentation) and practice immediately following a technique-based demonstration.

Student learning outcome:

After completing this course:

1. Students will learn key trends of literature that addresses the challenge of the field amplifying the pivotal role of social dimensions in sustainable societies.

2. Students will gain knowledge of key concepts and theories in sustainability science that are developed and redeveloped by scholars from multiple academic disciplines.

3. Students will gain practical experience and skills of linking theories to practices of sustainability challenges by conducting team projects.

4. Students will learn to explain how the concept of sustainability applies at a local, regional, national, and global level

5. Students will learn to explain how systems theory applies to sustainability.

6. Students will learn to analyze the effects of humans on the planet – past, present, and future

The Course Content:

1st week: Introduction to course content and expectations

- An overview on Global change and planetary boundaries

- State of the world: Urban and economic development and the explosive growth of the world’s population.

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2nd week:

- What is Sustainability?

- The Key Elements of Sustainable Development (Environmental, Social, Economic)

- Population Growth - The IPAT equation

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3rd week:

- United Nation System and Sustainable Development

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4th week:

The key challenges of sustainability:

- The distribution of water

- Food and energy

- Global Food Security and Sustainability

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5th week:

- Measuring Sustainability & Indicators of sustainability

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6th week:

- Exam

7th week:

- Sustainable Agriculture I

- Soil Management

- Water Management

- Pest and Disease Management

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8th week:

- Sustainable Agriculture II

- Alternative Farming Systems

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9th week:

- Biodiversity

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10th week:

- Sustainable Bio-production and Ecosystem Management

- Sustainability and biotechnology

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11th week:

- Business and Ethics of Sustainability

- Sustainable Society

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12th week:

- Cities and sustainability

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13th week:

- Exam

14th week:

- International Development and Future of Sustainability Science

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Course Reading List and References:

1. J. Allenby, “Macro-ethical systems and sustainability science,” Sustainability Science, 1st Ed., 2006

2. Bell, Simon and Stephen Morse, Sustainability Indicators; Measuring the Immeasureable., ISBN: 978-1844072996. Earthscan, 2008

3. Capra, “The Hidden Connections” Chapter on Biotechnology, Doubleday, 2007.

4. Edwards, Andres, “The Sustainability Revolution.” New Society, 2009.

5. Fiala, “Measuring sustainability and why ecological footprints are bad economics,” Ecological Economics, 67, 2008

6. Foresight. The Future of Food and Farming. Final Project Report. The Government Office for Science, London, 2011

7. Gaziulusoy, “A conceptual systemic framework… for sustainable technology development,” Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems, December 2008.

8. Hiroshi Komiyama, et. al. 2011. Sustainability science: A multidisciplinary approach. United Nations University Press. Tokyo-Japan.

9. GOLDIN I. and ALAN WINTERS L.. The economics of sustainable development. ISBN 0 521 46555 9. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.1995

10. James F. Power, Rajendra Prasad Soil Fertility Management for Sustainable Agriculture [1 ed.] ISBN 9781566702546, 1566702542, CRC-Press,1997

11. Jennifer A. Elliott,. An Introduction to Sustainable Development. 4th ed., Routledge. New York, USA, 2013. Chapter 1

12. John Mason, Sustainable Agriculture, [2nd ed.]ISBN 9780643068766, 0643068767, CSIRO Publishing, 2003

13. Karen L. Higgins. Economic Growth and Sustainability Systems Thinking for a Complex World. Elsevier Inc., 2015 Chapter 6

14. Marco Keiner, The future of sustainability [1 ed.], Springer, 2006

15. Michael P. Weinstein, R. Eugene Turner. Sustainability Science: The Emerging Paradigm and the Urban Environment. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2012. Part 4

16. Paul Gepts, eat al., Biodiversity in Agriculture: Domestication, Evolution, and Sustainability [1 ed.] Cambridge University Press,2012

17. Per Becker, Sustainability Science: Managing Risk and Resilience for Sustainable Development [1 ed.], ISBN 044462709X, 9780444627094, Elsevier, 2014

18. Rasmussen etal., “Long-Term Agroecosystem Experiments: Assessing Agricultural Sustainability and Global Change,” Science 30 October 1998.

19. Steven C. Hackett, Environmental and natural resources economics : theory, policy, and the sustainable society—3rd ed, ISBN 0-7656-1472-3, M.E. Sharpe, Inc..2006

20. UN, The world commission on environment and development: Our Common Future. 1987

21. William R. Blackburn, The Sustainability Handbook, ISBN 1849773297, 9781849773294Earthscan, 2012