Overview: Resource Based Sustainable Development Competence Area

Scope and Context

The industrial revolution brought forward new ways to produce and manufacture goods and use the natural resource base, resulting in significant societal and economic changes. The more recent boom in information and communication technologies (ICT) created a revolution in how society exchanges information and knowledge. Today a new revolution is being driven by the unprecedented pressures of global change (e.g. climate change) and shortages in natural resources, demanding the need for a better understanding of the whole system (i.e. social- ecological) in which we live and how to be more sustainable.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reported that, of the ecosystems studied, more than 60% have been degraded or are not being used sustainably. President Jacob Zuma captured South Africa’s concerns at the Green Economy Summit in Johannesburg in May 2010 when he said: “Ecosystem failure will seriously compromise our ability to address our social and economic priorities”.

However, the concept of sustainability is a very recent one, reaching global awareness only after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Revolutionary methods, approaches, technologies and behavior needed to accommodate the complex and integrative concepts of sustainability are still rapidly evolving. There is a demand for whole system understanding and the development of truly integrative approaches which address the complex and complicated relationships between the social, economic, and ecosystem components. These are needed to support decision makers in addressing risks posed by global change, degrading natural resources, planning for development and changing behavior in favour of sustainable resource utilisation.

Research Focus

• Operates at the interface and integrates the four main spheres of sustainable development: governance, economy, social environment and biophysical environment (natural resource base);
• Focuses on understanding the consequences of change and the development of integrated methods / approaches, planning tools, management approaches and praxis that will guide decision-making and promote the sustainable use of resources;
• Provides guidance on the ideals and praxis for achieving sustainable development to the public and private sector.

Capabilities

• Research at the human-nature interface, enabling decision-making and integrated solutions, based on an understanding of complex systems and sustainability values, such as business risk and resilience; agrarian social ecological systems; environmental management and assessment practice; sustainability science; conceptual modeling; and integrated decision-support.
• Research enabling decision-making and integrated solutions using a variety of environmental and resource economics methods. For example: valuation of natural capital stocks; ecosystem goods and services and environmental impacts; trade off and scenario analysis; quantitative modelling; system dynamics modelling; sustainability and welfare modelling; and analysis of economic policy instruments.