Volume 2 Issue 3, March 2019

The development of sewer systems hasn’t caught up with the urbanization speed in developing countries, with serious consequences for urban river water quality. The experience of urban river restoration in China can offer useful lessons to other countries in the Global South.

Joyeeta Gupta, professor of development at the University of Amsterdam, and Paul Ekins, professor of resource policy at University College London, are co-chairs of United Nations Environment’s sixth Global Environment Outlook: Healthy Planet, Healthy People. They talk to Nature Sustainability about drafting the new report.

Growing populations and climate change place new demands on agriculture. Intensive farming in ancient Hawai‘i demonstrates efficient and resilient land allocation.

Bee keeping is on the rise in cities. Beehive products can be used to trace the source and transport of metal contaminants by studying one of our favourite food stuffs — honey.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can influence each other positively or negatively. Climate change, inequalities and irresponsible consumption and production currently stand in the way of meeting the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and other high-level agreements acknowledge the linked nature of social and biophysical systems. This Review explains one research tradition, sociometabolic research, that explores these links. Sociometabolic research uses methods from systems science and allied areas to study the biophysical basis of economic activity. The authors use tangible examples from recent research to demonstrate strengths and weaknesses and then explore future directions.

Despite Antarctica’s reputation for being pristine, the construction and footprint of research stations and activities favours its relatively small regions without ice. This study uses GIS mapping of satellite imagery to quantify the extent of these impacts and finds that they impact more than half of all large coastal ice-free areas.

Indigenous agroecosystems often balance food production with environmental concerns better than industrial approaches, but they are rarely considered for meeting modern food needs. This study uses spatial models and climate scenarios to find indigenous production in Hawaiʻi’s past could meet significant population demands then and, potentially, now, but with lower capacity in the warmest end-of-century scenario.

Air pollution harms human and ecosystem health and challenges sustainable development accompanying industrial activity. Winter air pollution in Delhi is extreme, and most assume that this megacity and others create their own pollution. This study uses new methods to fingerprint this pollution, finding that rural crop and wood burning contribute substantially to Delhi’s winter haze.

Water constraints can affect plans to expand electricity capacity. This study shows that in the United States such constraints can increase the cost of electricity generation with slightly reduced electrification of end-use sectors, and can incentivize early retirement of water-intensive technologies.

Pollinators are integral to ecosystem functions and human wellbeing, yet conservation approaches often ignore indigenous and biocultural perspectives and practices. This Analysis uses the IPBES framework to categorize biocultural practices and identify policies to support their roles in pollinator conservation.

Honey can be used as a biomonitor to determine the source and fate of heavy metal pollutants in cities. This study analyses lead isotopes and trace element concentrations in honey from six geographical sectors in Vancouver, Canada. It finds that hives in the downtown sector of the city, near the Port of Vancouver, produced honey with elevated trace element concentrations and less radiogenic Pb isotopic compositions.

Water-use efficiency in the production of food must not only take into account quantities and yields, but also the nutrients and dietary impacts. Animal and plant foods show little difference in this demand efficiency, and best serve as complimentary rather than substitutable foods.

An estimate of the network of interactions relating to achieving the SDGs finds that tackling poverty and inequality will have positive effects on achieving all other goals.