People Work to Sustain Systems: A Framework for Understanding Sustainability

Abstract

Sustainability is commonly recognized as an important goal, but there is little agreement on what sustainability is, or what it requires. This paper looks at some common approaches to sustainability, and while acknowledging the ways in which they are useful, points out an important lacuna: that for something to be sustainable, people must be willing to work to sustain it. The paper presents a framework for thinking about and assessing sustainability which highlights people working to sustain. It also briefly discusses Integrated Water Resource Management and the example of the California Water Plan to explore what such a perspective brings that is overlooked in other approaches, and how this approach might be pursued. Ultimately, this framework argues that a system can only be described as sustainable if people's work to sustain the system is biophysically possible, socially possible, and if people would freely choose to do the sustaining work.

Quantitative Measure of Sustainability for Water Distribution Systems: A Comprehensive Review

“…Sustainability or sustainable development has received much attention over the last few decades, yet there has been a lack of a general definition of "sustainability," as it has been applied to different systems with different objectives [22]. Therefore, we reviewed the various definitions of sustainability and identified their common features with respect to WDSs.…”

“…Meanwhile, infrastructure sustainability is the ability of infrastructure to meet the resource sustainability goal with a minimum TBL impact. Furthermore, Lee [22] defined WDS sustainability as the ability to maintain performance for now and future generations by balancing usage and benefits in terms of economic, environmental, and social impacts. In summary, it is generally agreed that the definition of sustainability should consider the degree of satisfaction of the three components of sustainability (i.e., the economy, society, and environment), for both current and future generations.…”

“…Undeniably, sustainability is and will continue to be a critical criterion for WDS planning and management, but there is little agreement on the definition and quantitative criteria of sustainability or its improvement (i.e., sustainable development) [14][15][16]22]. Hence, this paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the existing WDS sustainability literature, as well as recommendations to address the aforementioned questions.…”

Food sovereignty and consumer sovereignty: Two antagonistic goals?

“…Despite this basic principle being self-evident, it has not triggered food policies that truly embrace longterm sustainability. We examine the sustainability of food systems by discussing three widely used categories (Werkheiser and Piso 2015): social, economic, and ecological sustainability.…”

Guidelines for the adaptation to floods in changing climate

“…Sustainable Urban Water Management SUWM is a part of IWRM. Dealing with risk in floodprone areas in the case of existing buildings and infrastructure is impeded and implementation of the SUWM is more difficult (Werkheiser and Piso 2015).…”