The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. The Goals interconnect and in order to leave no one behind, it ís important that we achieve each Goal and target by 2030. Click here to learn more about each issue…

The work being done in the BiSSL lab can be related to:

• Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
• Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
• Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption

Dr. Brian Fath, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Towson University and Editor-in-Chief, Ecological Modelling

“Investigations of sustainability and resilience using a network of networks approach” 

Friday 21st September, 12-1pm, HFSB 102

WFSC/ABS co-sponsored seminar with Dr. Fath. He will talk about his research in the area of systems ecology and network analysis applied to the sustainability and resilience of socio-ecological systems.

Abstract: Sustainability is a system-level property of the structure and function of the system in question.  Key features of sustainable systems are energy and material resource flows and waste recovery and the presence and maintenance of autocatalytic cycles that build, dissipate, and regenerate resource gradients.  A resilient system is one that is able to successfully navigate all stages of the adaptive cycle.  This view focuses on sustaining life processes rather than piecemeal solutions to specific symptoms.  In this study, network analysis is used to assess the impact of an invasive species on the food web in a series of Nebraska reservoirs.  The introduction of the invasive species is mediated by a social network of anglers moving from place to place.  Using this approach it is possible to promote management options to control the spread of the invasive species.

For more information on Dr. Fath please visit his website: https://www.towson.edu/fcsm/departments/biology/facultystaff/bfath.html

Tools for Systems Thinkers: The 6 Fundamental Concepts of Systems Thinking by Leyla Acaroglu with Disruptive Design

Find the full article with original illustrations here

Article: Sustainability is unhelpful: we need to think about regeneration by Herbert Girardet published Monday 10 June 2013 08.23 EDT in the Guardian

“Sustainable development is a concept to which few people would object; most of us would agree that we should not live as if there were no tomorrow. But … [it leaves us with many questions:] How long is sustainable: 10 years, 100 years, 1,000 years? And who and what should be sustainable: households, cities, whole nations, the world economy? And who should benefit: current generations or all humans who will ever be alive? And where is the critique of the current economic system: can SD really occur under the rules of capitalism, where the refusal to put a price on nature’s services and on ecological and social externalities is a systemic problem?… The concept of regenerative development aims to fill this gap: it means that we need to develop comprehensive rules for an environmentally enhancing, restorative relationship between humanity and the ecosystems from which we draw resources for our sustenance.”