Sustainable
development is a unique opportunity to create markets, open the field of work,
integrate marginalized people into society, and give everyone the freedom and
ability to choose the path of their future.
Read here
dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic, technological, and
environmental sustainability.
 |
| Understanding the four dimensions of sustainable development |
Dimensions
of Sustainable Development: Social, Economic, Technological, and Environmental
Sustainability
Sustainable Development and Human Welfare
Development
in general terms is the drawing up of plans and strategies for the development
of various productive sectors in a specific area; in order to achieve social
and health development of the society and improve its standard of living.
Sustainable
development is the use of means to exploit natural resources while preserving
their sustainability and preventing depletion of these resources.
Today, human development is recognized as critical to economic development and to the early stabilization of populations.
According
to the Human Development Report (HDR) published by the office of the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) "Men, women and children should
focus on such development policy that the development is about people, not
people about development."
The
definitions of sustainable development increasingly emphasize that development
should be participatory so that people participate democratically in
decision-making that affects their lives politically, economically, socially
and environmentally.
Read more: What is sustainable development?
Biodiversity
and Natural Resources
The
survival of biodiversity depends primarily on the sustainability and survival
of natural resources.
The
depletion of renewable and non-renewable natural resources has undermined
biodiversity on the ground.
To
maintain biodiversity as much as possible, several ways must be taken to reduce
this severe depletion of natural resources such as:
1. Working
on finding new energy sources.
2. Mitigating
the consumption of non-renewable sources currently available, by developing
specific technologies capable of using available sources with high efficiency
and reducing pollution resulting from their use.
One
of the central problems in addressing relations between urbanization and
environmental issues is that economic development raises many environmental
problems (eg, solid waste and automobile pollution) as the amount of waste
produced by the individual is steadily increasing as per capita income
increases.
In addition, the "ecological effects" on cities have widened in recent decades with rising incomes and lower transport costs in many countries.
Consumers
have resorted and industries in cities have increasingly relied on the
absorptive capacity of rural areas.
As
a result of separating the environmental impact of the city's natural
resources, it is necessary from the city to the extent that its residents and
businesses are unaware of their environmental impact.
Economic
Growth and the Environment
There
is a constant debate on the relationship between economic growth and the
environment.
Some
may believe that as long as there is economic growth, people will consume more
resources.
Others
argue that "the richest means cleaner" and this only happens when the
life of society becomes above a certain standard of living and reaches a
certain amount of wealth that enables them to have technology that can reduce
emissions and cleanse the environment from waste.
Moreover,
in developing countries, people are desperately trying to improve their quality
of life.
Clean
Cities can provide their populations with healthy, safe and encouraging
environmental conditions without creating unsustainable requirements for
natural resources and ecosystems.
The
successful city, in this sense, is the city that meets multiple objectives,
including the provision of healthy living and professional environments for the
population, water supply, repair services, and solid waste collection;
sanitation, paved roads, pedestrian corridors and other forms of infrastructure
essential for health; Ecologically sustainable between the requirements of
consumers, businesses, resources, and waste disposal units and the ecosystems
on which they depend.
Dimensions
of Sustainable Development
The
basic idea on which agenda 21 is based, is the idea of sustainable development.
The concept of sustainable development is multi-use and diverse.
Some
deal with sustainable development as an ethical vision that suits the interests
of the new world order.
Some
see sustainable development as a developmental model and a different
alternative to the capitalist industrial model.
The
World Resources Report, published in 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro, dedicated entirely to the topic of sustainable development, has been
the focal point of its 21st-century Plan of Action.
Circulation
distributed in four groups is social, economic, environmental, technical and
administrative and there are new dimensions associated with technical
instruments, which depend on people related to efforts and economic methods of
people's development; industry, agriculture, and others.
The
process of sustainable development includes human development aimed at
improving the level of education and health care, as well as the participation
of societies in development decision-making that affects equality and equity.
Social Dimensions of Sustainable Development
 |
| Social Dimensions of Sustainable Development |
Social Dimensions:
At the
humanitarian and social level, sustainable development seeks to stabilize
population growth and stop the flow of individuals into urban areas by
improving the level of rural health and education services and maximizing
public participation in development planning.
In the area
of social means, the idea of sustainable development is a key element in the
rejection of poverty, unemployment, discrimination that oppresses women and
leads to the extreme inequality between the rich and the poor.
Social justice
is the foundation of sustainability and this requires several things that
society should find such as:
1.
Population control: The population increase is about 80 million people every year, an
increase that does not expand the prevailing economic and social conditions and
most of the increase (85%) in the third world countries, which is characterized
by overcrowding, poverty, and underdevelopment.
2.
Social justice: The
idea of social justice includes justice between people and the introduction of vulnerable
groups, and justice between generations to say that the hand of natural wealth
is the property of children and grandchildren and should be written to inherit
the sound of fertile tender.
3. Human
development: The
idea of human development has expanded the meaning of education and its goals.
Every year, UNDP issues a report on "human development" which is
measured by developmental, economic and social criteria.
The report
classifies the countries of the world according to their success in achieving
human development.
Are
educational institutions able to make a positive contribution to development
and social progress? Or do social burdens go to the fields of unemployment
rather than to the labor market?
Continued
development requires us to reconsider the approach, methods, and institutions
of education.
4. Active
Participation: The
main pillars of the success of sustainable development are the participation of
people, active participation in the planning and implementation stages of
national development.
Such
participation depends on social acceptance, which is the essence of democracy.
The absence of the latter deprives people of participation as if absolving them
of responsibility.
Non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) from the tools of public participation, the right
information and guidance programs, to enlighten people about their roles and
guide them to the tasks of beneficial action and positive contribution to
achieving sustainable development.
5. Limits
to Rationality: The
social means complement the control of the consumer behavior of the people, and
accept the limits of rationality away from the extent of waste and not deprived
of adult food, the current situation, especially in the communities of
abundance, closer to the limits of irrational waste, where the increase in
consumption and the consequent increase in the amount of waste.
Economic Dimensions of Sustainable
Development
 |
| Economic Dimensions of Sustainable Development |
Economic Dimensions:
Sustainable
development requires the rationalization of economic approaches, foremost of
which is the idea of "environmental accounting of natural
resources".
The value of
the elements of the environment stored in oil and gas fields, coal deposits,
mining, and others have not been included in the calculation of cost.
To include
the value of fish money in the value of the fish stock, the crop of
agricultural areas in the value of the lack of fertility of the land, and in
many cases does not count the cost of irrigation water in agricultural
accounting works.
There is a
lack of necessary elements in other economic calculations; The calculation of
the agricultural output (crop) of the water unit, the calculation of the
industrial output of the unit of energy, the tools of the economic calculation,
the taxes and the financial incentives.
These tools
should be used to maximize production efficiency and serve continuous
development purposes.
• Share
the personal consumption of natural resources:
For
industrialized countries in the North, sustainable development means a deep and
sustained reduction in their consumption of energy and natural resources,
radical transformations in prevailing lifestyles, their conviction of exporting
their industrial development model globally.
And for poor countries sustainable development
means the use of resources to raise living standards of the poorest population
in the South.
With regard
to the economic dimensions of sustainable development, we note that the
population of the industrialized countries is more than twice as many as the
population of the developing countries.
For example,
energy consumption from oil, gas, and coal is 33 times higher in the United
States than in India, and in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) countries it is 10 times higher than in developing countries.
• Stop
wasting natural resources:
The
sustainable development of the rich countries consists of sustained reductions
in the levels of energy and natural resource consumption by improving
efficiency and radically changing the way of life.
In this
process, it is essential to ensure that environmental pressures are not
exported to developing countries. Sustainable development also means changing
consumption patterns that unnecessarily threaten biodiversity in other
countries, such as consumption by developed countries of endangered animal
products.
•
Responsibilities of developed countries for pollution and its treatment:
Industrial
countries have a special responsibility to lead sustainable development,
because of their past accumulated consumption of natural resources such as fuel
- and thus their contribution to global pollution problems - has been
disproportionately large.
In addition,
rich countries have the financial, technical and human resources to take the
lead in the use of cleaner and less resource-intensive technologies, to
transform their economies towards protecting and working with natural systems,
and to create causes for equality and socialism for access to opportunities.
Economic and
social services within their communities. The top priority is also the
provision of technical and financial resources to promote sustainable
development in other countries - as an investment in the future of the globe.
In the
United States and in response to environmental incidents involving landfills,
President Bill Clinton issued 364 executive orders to the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), for dealing with issues ranging from environmental to
immigration. On 11-February, 1994, under which he established an Environmental
Justice Office.
In April
1998, the EPA defined the term "environmental justice" as "fair
treatment," meaning: "No group of people, regardless of their racial
or ethnic characteristics or socio-economic status has the potential to have an
unequal share of the negative environmental consequences of any industrial
process, municipal or commercial, or those resulting from the implementation of
federal, state, tribal or local policies or projects.”
According to this definition, it is not
necessary to include and mention intentional discrimination, and therefore any
site that causes damage to protected groups is politically located in violation
of the EPA.
Here is the
difficulty in trying to define what should be measured. As a first step
in identifying an overly affected group, political decision-makers must take
into account the actual victims.
Another
difficulty arises when determining whether some groups will be affected and
how?
Plants,
chemical plants, and other industrial activities bring benefits to some groups,
and on the other, bring damage to other groups. In terms of interest, these
businesses create jobs and change the value of the land (possibly raising
prices).
These
interlocking returns must take into account the health risks of such facilities
as compared to the total health returns that can be considered as jobs
Entry-level?
What can be
concluded is that decisions regarding the location of industrial facilities and
waste treatment facilities generate inevitable differences?
• Equal
distribution of resources:
An effective
means of alleviating the burden of poverty and improving living standards have
become the responsibility of both rich and poor countries.
This is an
end in itself, which is to make access to resources, products and services
among all individuals within society closer to equality.
Unequal
access to education, social services, land and other natural resources, freedom
of choice and other political rights constitute an important barrier to development.
Such
equality helps to stimulate the development and economic growth necessary to
improve living standards.
•
Reduction of income inequality:
Sustainable
development, therefore, means reducing the growing disparity in income and
access to health care in industrialized countries such as the United States and
making large and unproductive land holdings available to the landless poor in
regions such as South America or unemployed agricultural engineers, as is the
case for our country; Lending to and sustaining informal economic sectors, and
improving access to education and health care for women everywhere.
It should be
noted that the policy of improving access to land, education and other social
services have played a crucial role in stimulating the rapid development and
the growth of Asian tiger economies such as Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan.
•
Reduction of military spending:
In all
countries, sustainable development must mean the transfer of funds from
expenditures for military purposes and State security to expenditure on
development needs.
A
reallocation of even a small portion of the resources now devoted to military
purposes would accelerate development significantly.
Technological Dimensions of Sustainable
Development
 |
| Technological Dimensions of Sustainable Development |
Technological Dimensions:
• Use of
cleaner technologies in industrial facilities:
Industrial facilities often pollute the surrounding air, water, and land.
In developed
countries, waste flow is reduced and pollution is cleaned up at considerable
expense; in developing countries, waste flowing in many is largely uncontrolled.
However,
pollution is not an inevitable consequence of industrial activity.
Such
effluents are the result of inefficient or wasteful technologies and are also
the result of neglect and lack of economic sanctions.
Sustainable
development here means the transition to cleaner, more efficient technologies
and a reduction in energy consumption and other natural resources to a minimum.
The
objective should be for technological processes or systems that cause lower
waste or pollutants in the first place, recycle waste internally and work with
or support natural systems.
In some
cases, traditional technologies meet these criteria and should be maintained.
• Adoption
of improved technologies and legal texts:
Technologies currently used in developing countries are often less efficient and more polluting than technologies available in industrialized countries.
Sustainable
development means accelerating the introduction of improved technologies, as
well as the legal provisions on the imposition and application of sanctions in
this area.
Technological
cooperation - whether by developing or adapting cleaner and more efficient
technologies to local needs - aimed at bridging the gap between industrialized
and developing countries would increase economic productivity and also prevent
further deterioration of the quality of the environment.
For these
efforts to succeed, they also require substantial investment in education and
human development, particularly in the poorest countries.
Technology
cooperation illustrates the interaction between economic, human, environmental
and technological dimensions for sustainable development.
• Fuel and
global warming:
The use of
hydrocarbons also requires special attention because it is a clear example of
non-enclosed industrial processes.
Fuel is
being extracted, burned and disposed of in the environment, becoming a major
source of air pollution in urban areas, acid rain in large areas, and global
warming that threatens climate change.
The current
levels of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities exceed the Earth's
capacity to absorb them; if the effect of the last decade of the twentieth
century is clear; most scientists agree that such emissions cannot continue
indefinitely at current levels or at increasing levels, without causing global
warming.
The
consequent changes in temperature, rainfall patterns and sea levels later -
especially if changes rapidly occur - will have devastating effects on
ecosystems, people's well-being and pensions, especially for those directly dependent
on natural systems.
• Reduce
emissions:
Sustainable
development in this area aims to reduce the global rate of increase in
greenhouse gas emissions.
By
significantly reducing the use of hydrocarbons and finding other sources of
energy to supply industrial communities.
Industrial
countries will have to take the first steps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions,
develop new technologies for more efficient use of thermal energy, and provide
non-thermal energy supplies that are safe and cost-effective.
However,
until such technologies are available, sustainable development means that fuels
are used as efficiently as possible in all countries.
• Administration
of technical progress:
On the
technical and administrative level, sustainable development is the development
that moves society to the era of clean industries and technologies that use the
least amount of energy and resources, and produce the minimum gases and
pollutants that lead to a rise in the surface temperature and ozone layer.
• Prevention
of degradation of the ozone layer:
Sustainable
development also means preventing the degradation of the protective ozone layer
of the Earth.
The
actions taken to address this problem are an encouraging precedent: the Kyoto
Protocol came to call for the phasing out of ozone-destroying chemicals and
demonstrates that international cooperation to address the risks of the global
environment is possible.
But
the intransigence of the United States of America and its recognition that its
power has become beyond the will of the international community has made it
reluctant to sign this Convention as long as no one can force it to do so.
Environmental Dimensions of Sustainable
Development
 |
| Environmental Dimensions of Sustainable Development |
Environmental Dimensions:
At the
environmental level, sustainable development is the optimal use of agricultural
land and water resources in the world, leading to a doubling of the green area
on the Earth's surface.
In general,
countries with the greatest single rate of depletion of the world's natural
resources (eg, the highest levels of resource use, waste production and
greenhouse gas emissions) are also the countries with the largest proportion of
their urban population.
Moreover,
the greatest use of resources and waste production in the world is concentrated
within urban areas.
Urban
policies have very important implications for future levels of greenhouse gas
emissions and the use of most resources in the State, given their role in the
design and construction of buildings in urban areas and in the spatial shape of
cities and urban systems.
Urbanization
policies that encourage the construction of energy-efficient buildings and
production units, which also provide building forms that do not rely on
increasingly on high levels of private car use, play a key role in separating
high living standards and high greenhouse gas emissions.
Urban
policies, plans, and regulations should, therefore, play a central role in any
national strategy to promote sustainable development.
Municipal governments
are important actors in any strategy that is hoped for success.
Read more:
Conclusion
The
Natural Resources Report emphasizes that the common denominator of these
social, economic, technological and environmental definitions is that
development in order to be a sustainable must:
First:
do not ignore environmental controls and limitations.
Second:
Do not lead to destruction and/or depletion of natural resources.
Third:
lead to the development of human resources (housing, health, the standard of
living, women's situation, democracy, human rights implementation).
Fourth:
Changes occur in the prevailing industrial base.
Join us on Facebook