Unsustainable

to Sustainable
Development
By – Sripriya Srinivasan
What is Sustainable
Development?
 Sustainable development can be defined
as development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the
ability of future generations.
 Meet the needs of population and
address socio-economic equality.
 Manage resources efficiently and
maximize benefits we get from them so as
to not overload the world’s ecosystem.
Types of Sustainable
Development
Sustainability : Theory &
Practice
 CarryingCapaity
 Ecological Footprint (EF)
Carrying Capacity
 Carrying capacity is the number of individuals an
environment can support without degradation.
 Level of land use, human activity or development
for a specific area that can be accomodated
permanently without irreversible change in quality
of air, water, land, or plant and animal habitats
 The upper limits of development beyond which
quality of human life, health, welfare, safety or
community character within an area will be
adversely affected.
 Earth’s carrying capacity will impact Human
Population, Earth has a carrying capacity which is
10 – 15 billion people.
Ecological Footprint
 Measure of the load imposed by a given
population on nature.
 It represents land area necessary to
sustain the current levels of resource
consumption and waste discharge by
that population.
 We need to reduce our EF through a
sustainable life.
Biocapacity
 The biocapacity or biological capacity of an ecosystem is an
estimate of its production of certain biological materials such
as natural resources, and its absorption and filtering of other
materials such as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
 Biocapacity is expressed in terms of global hectares per
person, thus is dependent on human population.
 For example, there were 12 billion hectares of biologically
productive land and water on this planet in 2008. Dividing by
the number of people alive in that year, 6.7 billion, gives a
biocapacity of 1.8 global hectares per person . This assumes
that no land is set aside for other species that consume the
same biological material as humans.
 Biocapacity is used together with Ecological Footprint as a
method of measuring Human impact on the environment.
How to reduce global EF?
1. Increase or maintain biocapacity.
2. Improve resource efficiency.
3. Reduce consumption of goods and
services per person.
4. Lowering gobal population.
Equitable use of resources
Causes for Urban Energy Crisis
 Finitenatural reserves.
 Detrimental effects on global
environment.
 Threat to long term sustainability.
Renewable Energy Sources
 Solar
 Wind
 Biomass
 Tidal
 Geothermal