Principles of Environmental Sciences (ESA-20806)
Wageningen University, Sharelle Verheij, October 2017
Book 8th Editoo
Natural Sciences
Main principles of environmental sciences (Cpt. 1&2)
- Environmental problems
- Environmental quality
- Sustainability
- DPSIR
Environment = Circumstances or conditons that surround an organism or group of organisms
= Social or cultural conditons that afect an individual or community
Environmental problems
= Human induced changes/’natural’ fuctuatons in the state of the environment
(quality) leading to negatve ecological and socio-economic consequences.
= A known process within the (state of) environment which has adverse efects on
the sustainability of the environmental quality necessary for the wellbeing of the
organisms living in it.
Environmental quality
= What the state could/should be in order to assess and value the actual state of the
environment, with the use of a norm / standard / adoptng a reference.
= The diference between actual state and reference state
Standard = State of the environment by which the functon is fully/suuciently satsaed.
Sustainability = Search for ecological stability and human progress that can last over the long term.
Sustainable development = Meetog the oeeds of the preseot withoutt compromisiog the abilito
of futtutre geoeratoos to meet their owo oeeds.
Solviog sutstaioabilito problems:
1. Environmental change issues
1. Past, present and future trends
2. Understanding systems: oceans, urban deltas, biogeochemical cycles
3. Knowing role of sectors & issues: health, food, water, biodiversity
2. Environmental change assessments & 3. System dynamics and sustainability
1. Deaning / quantfying / atributng change
2. Monitoring systems and indicators 4. Science-policy assessments & informing policies
3. Appraising vulnerabilites and risks 5. Assessing trade-ofs, synergies and uncertaintes
4. Sustainability governance and transformaton
1. Societal change over tme 4. Public-private partnerships
2. Pro-poor approaches to sustainability 5. Wealth (natural + human + physical assets)
3. Internatonal collaboraton 6. Green economy
5. Sustainable challenges
1. Planetary boundaries 5. Compromises in the food-water-energy nexus
2. Solutons 6. Improving distributonal justce
3. Vulnerabilites 7. Environmental security
4. Adaptaton versus mitgaton
6. Sustainability science
1. Tools, methods and theories 4. Co-design and co-producton
2. Analytcal frameworks to assess sustainability 5. Capacity building
3. Interdiciplinarity and transdisciplinarity 6. Science communicaton & outreach
, DPSIR provides a framework for ao iotegrated aoalosis
D Driving force Social or economic developments that lead to a pressure (cause of problem)
P Pressure Societal interventon that leads to a change in the state
S State /change State of atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere or aquasphere (environ. quality)
I Impact Societal (ecological) efect of a change in the state
R Response Societal response that feeds back on the D, P, S or I.
DPSIR for Environmental Problem Chain
D Social developments: populaton/economic growth, technology development, urbanizaton
Societal actvites: agriculture, industry, transport, energy supply
P emission, depleton, damage
S water, air and soil quality; quality biosphere
I health, economy, values
R e.g. for traosport bo cars: iotrodutciog ‘greeo taxes’ to redutce car utse
Biodiversity loss (Cpt. 3&5)
- DPSIR for biodiversity loss
- Biodiversity components
- Quantfying (changes in) quality and quantty of biodiversity at spatal scales
- Interacton between diferent environmental problems
- Functons and values of biodiversity
- Citzen science and communicaton in biodiversity research
Biodiversity = the variety of living things, 3 kinds:
1. Genetc diversity variety of versions of the same genes within individual species
2. Species diversity nr. of diferent kinds of organisms within a community or ecosystem
3. Ecological diversity richness and complexity of a biological community
Problem: Lack of informaton on the state (Nr. of species? Populaton size?)
Habitat =
Place or set of environmental
conditons in which a partcular
organism lives
Ecological niche =
The role played by a species in a
biological community
&
The total set of environmental factors
that determine a species distributon
Biome =
Broad types of biological communites
with characteristc types of
environments that occur in diferent
conditons (temperature,
precipitaton)
Wageningen University, Sharelle Verheij, October 2017
Book 8th Editoo
Natural Sciences
Main principles of environmental sciences (Cpt. 1&2)
- Environmental problems
- Environmental quality
- Sustainability
- DPSIR
Environment = Circumstances or conditons that surround an organism or group of organisms
= Social or cultural conditons that afect an individual or community
Environmental problems
= Human induced changes/’natural’ fuctuatons in the state of the environment
(quality) leading to negatve ecological and socio-economic consequences.
= A known process within the (state of) environment which has adverse efects on
the sustainability of the environmental quality necessary for the wellbeing of the
organisms living in it.
Environmental quality
= What the state could/should be in order to assess and value the actual state of the
environment, with the use of a norm / standard / adoptng a reference.
= The diference between actual state and reference state
Standard = State of the environment by which the functon is fully/suuciently satsaed.
Sustainability = Search for ecological stability and human progress that can last over the long term.
Sustainable development = Meetog the oeeds of the preseot withoutt compromisiog the abilito
of futtutre geoeratoos to meet their owo oeeds.
Solviog sutstaioabilito problems:
1. Environmental change issues
1. Past, present and future trends
2. Understanding systems: oceans, urban deltas, biogeochemical cycles
3. Knowing role of sectors & issues: health, food, water, biodiversity
2. Environmental change assessments & 3. System dynamics and sustainability
1. Deaning / quantfying / atributng change
2. Monitoring systems and indicators 4. Science-policy assessments & informing policies
3. Appraising vulnerabilites and risks 5. Assessing trade-ofs, synergies and uncertaintes
4. Sustainability governance and transformaton
1. Societal change over tme 4. Public-private partnerships
2. Pro-poor approaches to sustainability 5. Wealth (natural + human + physical assets)
3. Internatonal collaboraton 6. Green economy
5. Sustainable challenges
1. Planetary boundaries 5. Compromises in the food-water-energy nexus
2. Solutons 6. Improving distributonal justce
3. Vulnerabilites 7. Environmental security
4. Adaptaton versus mitgaton
6. Sustainability science
1. Tools, methods and theories 4. Co-design and co-producton
2. Analytcal frameworks to assess sustainability 5. Capacity building
3. Interdiciplinarity and transdisciplinarity 6. Science communicaton & outreach
, DPSIR provides a framework for ao iotegrated aoalosis
D Driving force Social or economic developments that lead to a pressure (cause of problem)
P Pressure Societal interventon that leads to a change in the state
S State /change State of atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere or aquasphere (environ. quality)
I Impact Societal (ecological) efect of a change in the state
R Response Societal response that feeds back on the D, P, S or I.
DPSIR for Environmental Problem Chain
D Social developments: populaton/economic growth, technology development, urbanizaton
Societal actvites: agriculture, industry, transport, energy supply
P emission, depleton, damage
S water, air and soil quality; quality biosphere
I health, economy, values
R e.g. for traosport bo cars: iotrodutciog ‘greeo taxes’ to redutce car utse
Biodiversity loss (Cpt. 3&5)
- DPSIR for biodiversity loss
- Biodiversity components
- Quantfying (changes in) quality and quantty of biodiversity at spatal scales
- Interacton between diferent environmental problems
- Functons and values of biodiversity
- Citzen science and communicaton in biodiversity research
Biodiversity = the variety of living things, 3 kinds:
1. Genetc diversity variety of versions of the same genes within individual species
2. Species diversity nr. of diferent kinds of organisms within a community or ecosystem
3. Ecological diversity richness and complexity of a biological community
Problem: Lack of informaton on the state (Nr. of species? Populaton size?)
Habitat =
Place or set of environmental
conditons in which a partcular
organism lives
Ecological niche =
The role played by a species in a
biological community
&
The total set of environmental factors
that determine a species distributon
Biome =
Broad types of biological communites
with characteristc types of
environments that occur in diferent
conditons (temperature,
precipitaton)
