Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology
Publisher: Springer
Published: Sep 30, 2012
Format: hardcover
Number of pages: 12677
ISBN-13: 9780387894690
Description: Sustainability in environmental usage refers to the potential longevity of vital human ecological support systems, such as the planet's climate system, systems of agriculture, industry, forestry, fisheries and the ocean, and fresh water, together with the impact of human communities, transportation systems, and the built environment in general on these natural services. Although definitions of “sustainable development” are often stated without reference to the number of people to be supported and at what standard of living, it is clear that we face something like a 50% increase in food demand as early as 2030, while global energy and materials use is expected to grow by 300% over this period. At the same time, the proportion of the population that lives in an urban environment will rise from about 47% to 60%. Up until now, economic development, growth, and sustainability strategies such as the “green revolution” were heavily dependent on large inputs of fossil fuels.

In addition, about 70% of available freshwater is used by agriculture. Many of these approaches no longer appear sustainable as many natural resources, including petroleum, are poised to become scarce relative to population.    Sustainability science and technology is not a discipline, but is the grand challenge of our time. Top-down approaches to controlling population growth, maintaining biodiversity, modeling large-scale systems, etc. certainly do exist, and perspectives on a number of these issues can be found in a complementary work, Springer’s “Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science.” However, science and technology and the resulting innovation economy is also a bottom-up affair involving myriad individuals and research teams in publicly funded scientific laboratories and private corporations.

This process of innovation is essentially unpredictable resulting in a great range of promising technologies that are individually dwarfed by the scope of the sustainability challenge but represent essential contributions to this goal. The Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology (ESST) is founded on this assumption. An indispensable resource for scientists and engineers in developing new technologies and for applying existing technologies to sustainability, ESST is presented at the university and professional level needed for scientists, engineers, and their students to support real progress in sustainability science and technology. Although the emphasis is on science and technology rather than policy, the Encyclopedia is also a comprehensive and authoritative resource for policy makers who want to understand the scope of research and development and how these bottom-up innovations map on to the sustainability challenge.

ESST is also unique in gathering many of the world’s most respected scientists, including several Nobel Laureates and a Crafoord Prize winner to advise, edit, and write on more than 600 separate topics in 42 sections. Among the topics are green chemistry for industry, water use and recovery, crop production including precision farming, genetic modification of crops, forestry and fisheries.

all types of energy production, electric utility as well as small scale electricity generation, mass and personal transportation with fuel modification, power source variation, pollution control and waste disposition, solid waste utilization, recycle and disposition, urban planning and the built environment, environmental quality, engineering mitigation, adaptation and forecasting of global warming and any possible cooling due to solar-earth insolation and dimming, geoengineering of global warming mitigation measures, measurement and observation systems (terrestrial and from space), indoor pollution and industrial hygiene, epidemiology and disease prevention, as well as modeling methodologies for all of the above individually and in aggregate earth model formats.

ESST is prepared by scientists and engineers for other scientists and engineers in a succinct yet authoritative format that provides students and non-specialists with a detailed understanding of the multidisciplinary landscape of sustainability science and technology.