Sustainable Development Policies as Indicators and Pre-Conditions for Sustainability Efforts at Universities: fact or fiction?

Purpose - There is a widely held belief that Sustainable Development (SD) policies are essential for universities to successfully engage in matters related to sustainability, and are an indicator of the extent to which they are active in this field. This paper examines the evidence which currently exists to support this assumption. It surveys a sample of universities in Brazil, Germany, Greece, Portugal, South Africa, United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA) to ascertain the extent to which universities that are active in the field of sustainable development have formal policies on sustainable development, and whether such policies are a pre-condition for successful sustainability efforts. Design/methodology/approach –The study involved 35 universities in these seven countries (five universities respectively). A mixed-methods approach has been used, ranging from document analysis, website analysis, questionnaires and interviewing. Findings – Although only 60% of the sampled universities had a policy that specifically addressed SD, this cannot be regarded as an indicator that the remaining 40% are not engaged with substantial actions that address SD. Indeed, all of the universities in the sample, regardless of the existence of a SD formal policy, demonstrated engagement with environmental sustainability policies or procedures in some form or another. This research has been limited by the availability and ability to procure information from the sampled universities. Despite this, it is one of the largest research efforts of this kind ever performed. Originality/value – Our findings provide some valuable insights about the connections between SD policies on the one hand, and the practice of SD in higher education institutions on the other

The Role of Planning in Implementing Sustainable Development in a Higher Education Context

The implementation of sustainable development in higher education is an important goal, and one which requires much planning. The many recurring problems and barriers that hinder the attainment of sustainable development objectives at universities are either directly or indirectly related to deficiencies in planning which pose a significant barrier to the implementation of sustainable development. There is therefore a perceived need to foster a better understanding of how planning may help higher education institutions to become more successful in implementing sustainable development. Based on this need, this paper describes the role of planning as a tool for improved knowledge and sound decision-making towards a better understanding of sustainability in a science and technology context, and the motivation towards transformation. In particular, it reports on a survey in the context of which some of the major obstacles for planning and implementing sustainable development at universities are outlined. The study identified the fact that many universities are yet to have fully developed plans to take into account matters related to sustainable development, and describes some the elements which could be considered in attempts to give a greater emphasis to sustainability to planning in a higher education context

Transformative adaptation as a sustainable response to climate change: insights from large-scale case studies

Many climate change responses focus on form rather than substance. As a result, they invariably look at the consequences but ignore the drivers of climate change. Since past approaches towards climate change adaptation have had limited success, the most effective and sustainable way to minimize future climate change impacts on humanity is through transformative adaptation (TA). This paper defines and characterizes the conceptual foundations of this term and outlines how TA influences current and future climate change adaptation challenges. This paper reviews the meaning and purpose of transformation in climate change adaptation and, by means of a set of case studies, explains how their commonalities can help define good TA practice. Deploying a range of situations, this study shows how this approach is being implemented in a set of countries, and considers its potential transformative impact, its benefits, and challenges. The results obtained have shown that when implemented with due care, TA can yield long-term benefits to local communities. The paper conclude by listing some measures by which TA may be further deployed as a means of helping communities to meet the future challenges posed by a changing climate

The 2010 Mw 7.8 Mentawai earthquake : very shallow source of a rare tsunami earthquake determined from tsunami field survey and near-field GPS data

The Mw 7.8 October 2010 Mentawai, Indonesia, earthquake was a “tsunami earthquake,” a rare type of earthquake that generates a tsunami much larger than expected based on the seismicmagnitude. It produced a locally devastating tsunami, with runup commonly in excess of 6 m. We examine this event using a combination of high-rate GPS data, from instruments located on the nearby islands, and a tsunami field survey. The GPS displacement time series are deficient in high-frequency energy, and show small coseismic displacements (<22 cm horizontal and <4 cm subsidence). The field survey shows that maximum tsunami runup was >16 m. Our modeling results show that the combination of the small GPS displacements and large tsunami can only be explained by high fault slip at very shallow depths, far from the islands and close to the oceanic trench. Inelastic uplift of trench sediments likely contributed to the size of the tsunami. Recent results for the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoko-Oki earthquake have also shown shallow fault slip, but the results from our study, which involves a smaller earthquake, provide much stronger constraints on how shallow the rupture can be, with the majority of slip for the Mentawai earthquake occurring at depths of <6 km. This result challenges the conventional wisdom that the shallow tips of subduction megathrusts are aseismic, and therefore raises important questions both about the mechanical properties of the shallow fault zone and the potential seismic and tsunami hazard of this shallow region.Published versio