Connecting Local to Global: Geographic Information Systems and Ecological Footprints as Tools for Sustainability

Expanding the table: The web as a tool for participatory adaptive management in California forests

“…Often these three areas are combined into a collection of integrated tools on one website that supports visualization and decision-making (Balram and Dragicevic, 2009;Sheppard, 2005;Theobald et al, 2000); map-based discussions (Carton and Thissen, 2009;Kingston et al, 2000;Rinner et al, 2008;Sheppard and Meitner, 2005;Simao et al, 2009); and transparency of government data (Brown and Reed, 2009;Klinsky et al, 2010;MacEachren et al, 2004). These tools are important because they allow users to interactively understand the impact of their decisions in planning processes, to develop shared understandings of complex spatial data, and for multiple voices to be heard and incorporated into decision-making (Nyerges et al, 2006).…”

Household Level Consumption and Ecological Stress in an Urban Area

“…They used an integration of block-grouped census data and GIS maps to derive the residential footprints of American cities. Several studies used GIS and RS techniques for data derivation and the visualization of footprints at different spatial scales [34]. However, most of these studies represented a coarse resolution of the spatial extent, which merely compared larger geographical areas with one another.…”

“…However, most of these studies represented a coarse resolution of the spatial extent, which merely compared larger geographical areas with one another. For a more precise analysis, Klinsky et al (2010) in their study followed local peoples' participation approach, and applied GIS to derive data as well as raise environmental awareness about consumption habits [34].…”

Agro-Biotechnology

“…This rate of increasing population requires an increase in the food production. Since 70% of the world's population lives in the developing nations, this is where the major food availability is required [11].The second challenge is making certain that the population has access to adequate quantities of food at adequate prices at all times. This is a concern due to the unequal distribution of the global food production.…”

“…So far success has been seen in the development of disease-resistant cassava, which is now distributed throughout Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Burundi. In the near future, agro-biotech techniques have great potential as being one of the major key technologies that offer solutions, thus rapidlyincreasing our potential in developing various varieties of crops with resistance to scarcity of water [11],temperature, salinity, pests and diseases, making sure that the environmental and food safety conditions are maintained.…”