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A Landscape Approach for Sustainability Science

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Sustainability Science

Abstract

The global life-support system for humans is in peril but no alternative to achieving sustainability is desirable. In response to this challenge, sustainability science has emerged in recent decades. In this chapter, I argue that to advance sustainability science a landscape approach is essential. Landscapes represent a pivotal “place” in the place-based research and practice of sustainability. Landscape ecology, as the science and art of studying and influencing the relationship between spatial pattern and ecological processes at different scales, can play a critically important role in the development of sustainability science. Global sustainability cannot be achieved without most, if not all, landscapes being sustainable. As landscapes are spatial units in which society and nature interact and co-evolve, it is more useful and practical to define landscape sustainability based on resilience rather than stability. Furthermore, the development of landscape sustainability measures can be facilitated by integrating landscape pattern metrics and sustainable development indicators.

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Acknowledgments

I to thank Dr. Michael P. Weinstein for inviting me to give a presentation at the International Symposium on Sustainability Science at Montclair State University in October 2010, from which this paper has evolved. Also, I thank Tong Wu for a number of helpful discussions on sustainability, resilience, and environmental economics. My research in landscape ecology and sustainability has been supported by grants from National Science Foundation (DEB 9714833, DEB-0423704, BCS-0508002), US Environmental Protection Agency (R827676-01-0), and collaborative grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences and Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, 874501, Tempe, AZ, 85287-4501, USA

    Jianguo (Jingle) Wu

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  1. Jianguo (Jingle) Wu
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Correspondence to Jianguo (Jingle) Wu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studie, Montclair State University, Montclair, 70803, New Jersey, USA

    Michael P. Weinstein

  2. Louisiana State University, Nicholson Extension, Baton Rouge, 70803, Louisiana, USA

    R. Eugene Turner

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Wu, J. (2012). A Landscape Approach for Sustainability Science. In: Weinstein, M., Turner, R. (eds) Sustainability Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3188-6_3

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