1

CE:422 Sustainable Development

& Risk Management
 Course Objectives
• Sustainable development: The
objective is to encourage the students
in exploring the challenges that society
is facing and to understand the role of
Civil Engineers in the society. To
understand the interactions between
the Civil Engineering profession,
physical infrastructure, and social
institutions.
 
• To introduce students with the tools
and approaches to deal with
complexity and uncertainty
Books
 Week 1 : Lecture No. 1

INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABILITY :
HUMANITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT AND
ITS STATE; IPAT EQUATION; SUSTAINABILITY
CHALLENGES
 Learning Objectives
• learn the meaning of sustainability in its
modern context
• acquire a basic facility for using the IPAT
equation
• learn about patterns of human consumption
• understand the major factors that contribute
to unsustainable impacts
 An Introduction to Sustainability
• Sustainability (noun) represents the ability of a
system to sustain, and the word sustainable
(adjective) implies the capability of being
sustained. Both words are derived from
English verb “to sustain”. The various English
dictionaries trace this verb back to the late 13th
century, and link it to a Latin verb “sustinere”
(to uphold) as its origin, which came to English
language via old French word “sustenir”.
 Definition by Dr. Sagheer Aslam
• Based on the dictionary definitions, “sustainability”
can be considered to be an ability of something
[which for our purposes may be considered a
system] to continue to exist, maintain, and remain
operational for an extended period of time [equal
to or more than the design life] into the future
without any significant interruptions, breakage or
failure, resulting in improvement of the quality of]
life by providing strength, energy, and hope [which
we may refer to as resilience].
An Introduction to Sustainability: Humanity and
the Environment
What is Sustainability?
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) became
widely known by the name of its chair Harlem Brundtland, a medical
doctor and public health advocate who had served as Norway’s Minister
for Environmental Affairs and subsequently held the post of Prime Minister
during three periods. The commission had twenty-one members drawn
from across the globe, half representing developing nations. In addition to
its fact finding activities on the state of the global environment, the
commission held fifteen meetings in various cities around the world
seeking firsthand experiences on the how humans interact with the
environment. The Brundtland Commission issued its final report “Our
Common Future” in 1987
An Introduction to Sustainability: Humanity and the
Environment
Although the Brundtland Report did not technically invent
the term “sustainability” , it was the first credible and
widely-disseminated study that probed its meaning in the
context of the global impacts of humans on the
environment.
Its main and often quoted definition refers to as
sustainable development:
“Development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs.”
An Introduction to Sustainability: Humanity and
the Environment
The report uses the terms “
sustainable development ”,
”sustainable,” and “sustainability”
interchangeably, emphasizing the
connections among social equity,
economic productivity, and
environmental quality
 An Introduction to Sustainability: Humanity and
the Environment
Economic interests define the
framework for making decisions, the
flow of financial capital, and the
facilitation of commerce, including the
knowledge, skills, competences and
other attributes embodied in
individuals that are relevant to
economic activity.
An Introduction to Sustainability: Humanity and
the Environment
• Environmental aspects
recognize the diversity
and interdependence
within living systems,
the goods and services
produced by the world’s
ecosystems, and the
impacts of human
wastes.
An Introduction to Sustainability: Humanity and
the Environment
Socio-political refers to
interactions between
institutions/firms and
people, functions
expressive of human
values, aspirations and
well-being, ethical issues,
and decision making that
depends upon collective
action.
An Introduction to Sustainability: Humanity and
the Environment
The Brundtland Report makes it clear that while sustainable
development is enabled by technological advances and economic
viability, it is first and foremost a social construct that seeks to
improve the quality of life for the world’s peoples: physically,
through the equitable supply of human and ecological goods and
services; aspirationally, through making available the widespread
means for advancement through access to education, systems of
justice, and healthcare; and strategically, through safeguarding the
interests of generations to come. In this sense sustainability sits
among a series of human social movements that have occurred
throughout history: human rights, racial equality, gender equity,
labor relations, and conservation, to name a few
An Introduction to Sustainability: Humanity and
the Environment
The US Environmental Protection Agency
(US EPA) takes the extra step of drawing a
distinction between sustainability and
sustainable development, the former
encompassing ideas, aspirations and values
that inspire public and private
organizations to become better stewards of
the environment and that promote positive
economic growth and social objectives, the
latter implying that environmental
protection does not preclude economic
development and that economic
development must be ecologically viable
now and in the long run
 The IPAT Equation
One of the ways of
measuring progress
toward achieving
sustainable goals and
begin to apply
sustainability concepts
 The IPAT Equation
Suppose we wish to project
future needs for maintaining
global environmental quality
at present day levels for the
mid-twenty-first century.

For this we need to have

some projection of human
population (P) and an idea
of rates of growth in
consumption A.
 The IPAT Equation
Figure suggests that global population in
2050 will grow from World Population
Growth the current 6.8 billion to about
9.2 billion, an increase of 35%.
Global GDP (Gross Domestic Product,
one measure of consumption) varies
from year to year but, using Figure
Worldwide Growth of Gross Figure as a
guide, an annual growth rate of about
3.5% seems historically accurate
Domestic Product (growth at 3.5%,
when compounded for forty years,
means that the global economy will be
four times as large at mid-century as
today)
The IPAT Equation
 Challenges For Sustainability
• To alleviate poverty, economic development is must.
• Economic development leads to environmental
degradation.
• Social problems are interlinked with economic
development and
• Environmental problems with economic
development and then with society.
 Challenges For Sustainability
• One of the challenges is to find out the
trade off between environmental damage,
economic development and social needs.
• Real world examples
i. Copper and gold mining in USA
ii. Road construction and Mass Transit

• the extent to which tradeoffs can be

made before irreversible damage
results is not always known, and in any
case there are definite limits on how
much substitution among the three
elements is wise (to date, humans have
treated economic development as the
dominant one of the three)
Notion of Weak and Strong Sustainability

• When economic and social institutions are

dominant and environment weakens it is weak
sustainability
• When environment is given more weightage in
decisions it is strong sustainability
 Summary

Whether or not one follows the strong or

weak form of sustainability, it is important to
understand that while economic and social
systems are human creations, the
environment is not. Rather, a functioning
environment underpins both society and the
economy.
Challenges
 Development of Public Policy
• The Public Policy problems arise when there is
a difference between current state of affairs
and the preferred state of affairs.

• How can this state of affairs be changed?

 Development of Public Policy
• Something has to be done to change the way people behave on both the
production and consumption sides of the system.

• The available public policy approaches for doing this are as follows:

• Decentralized policies
– Changes in property rights
– Voluntary action
• Command-and-control policies
– Standards
• Market-based policies
– Taxes and subsidies
– Transferable discharge permits
 Role of Civil Engineers in Society
• The practice of sustainable development requires a new approach from

engineers and scientists: participation in open-decision processes, in a role

which we call the Honest Broker of technical and scientific knowledge. This

new role implies a different model of professional practice and requires a

different approach to teaching and learning. Forecasting the future needs

to be complemented by the approach of foresighting, where combining

scientific and engineering expertise with other approaches can lead to

outcomes which are impossible to conceive within one perspective

 Local challenges of Pakistan
Some of the major environmental issues that the developing countries

including Pakistan is facing include the following

• Increased Population Pressure

• Unsustainable land Use

• Air pollution

• Water pollution
 Local challenges of Pakistan
Some of the major environmental issues that the developing countries

including Pakistan is facing include the following

• Noise pollution

• Climate Change

• Natural resource depletion

• Unsustainable and high energy consumption

• Loss of biological diversity

• Degradation of fresh water (depleting Ground water)

• Deforestation and rough use of forests

 References
• Azapagic, A., Perdan, S., & Clift, R. (2004).
Sustainable Development in Practice. John
Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• Sachs, J. (2014). THE AGE OF SUSTAINABLE.
Coulombia University Press.
• Theis, T., & Tomkin, J. (n.d.). Sustainability : A
Comprehensive Foundation.