Introduction
Sustainable development has been broadly taken up as a desirable policy objective amongst scholars concerning the future of the Earth’s limited resources. According to Our Common Future (1987) concluded the requirements in order to achieve sustainable development in the aspects of economic, social and environmental; these attributes will be expanded in this essay alongside with their application towards town planning.
Origin of Sustainable Development
The advancing technological development has given rise to the rapid growth in human’s social and economic progress ever since mid 20th Century. This change was followed by a reform in people’s living styles and habits; they tend to have mass productions, extensive consumption and as a result, produced pandemic waste that is harmful to the environment. The situation was further worsened by all kinds of pollutions and misuse of resources. The abuse outstripped the environment’s natural resilience hence the breaking down in achieving sustainable development.
Environmental issue has always been a worldwide hot topic since the 1960s till today yet the discussions in early stages were of very small-scale regional issues such as pollutions and litter disposal. The global economic trend in the 1970s was followed by an even more accelerated degeneration and impairment to the natural environment. According to J. A. Elliot (2013), “All forms of economic and social activity make demands on the resource base: as raw materials such as soil and water within agricultural production, as source of inputs and energy into industrial production or in the construction and maintenance of human settlements and urban lifestyles, for example.” The situation then raised the United Nation’s awareness, the Stockholm Conference – Human Environment Conference was hosted in 1972 accordingly and it was the first meeting in the world that is dedicated to the environmental issues. It is apparent that the world is attentive to the phenomenon as even though meantime the meeting was held, the East and the West were in a tense condition as a result from the Cold War, more than 100 countries were present at the conference. The Declaration of the conference called for global cooperation to protect the habitat and the precious resources.
Several strategies were brought to public notice in the conferences hosted by different organizations in the 1980s, namely the World Conservation Strategy from the World Wildlife Fund. Addition to this, the Bruntland Commission, which consisted of a group of international environment and development experts and government officials, called for the first meeting in 1984 and published the report “Our Common Future” in 1987. The report addressed the fact that the number of sufferers from natural disasters in the 70s, is a double that of the 60s. Most of these hazards were correlated to improper and misuse development and hence casted horrendous impacts on a large percentage of people in the world, especially in the under developed countries. “The Bruntland reconceptualization of the environmental problematic, from how best to manage pollution to how to promote sustainable development, contributed to the increased need for new arrangements for global environmental management” (Baker, 2006).
The Meaning of Sustainable Development
“Sustainable development is fundamentally about reconciling development and the environmental resources on which society depends” (Elliot, 2013). It literally stands for maintaining development over a long period of time. According to Elliot (2013), most definitions of sustainable development encompass the idea that there are three interdependent pillars of sustainable development: environment, economic and social. Anything is part of sustainable development, yet particularly for resources and the environment, it can be put into words as to maintain or extend the production of resources and the integrity of the resource base, so that the natural resources can always be used by mankind and will not be affected by the depletion from future generations of human production and life.
Sustainable development is currently being pursued in the context of an increasingly globalized world, yet one that was made distinctive by poverty. Elliot also (2013) suggested that the global challenge of sustainable development lies in complex interdependencies of environment, social and economic development. Additionally, Our Common Future (1987) made a conclusion to mark off the prerequisite of achieving sustainable development in the aspects of political, economics, social and environmental. Sustainable development ultimately is the core principles for all of us to follow in order to meet human development goals while simultaneously supporting the ecosystem’s ability to provide natural resources and services according to the economy and society.
Sustainable Development in planning
“Only when you have felled the last tree, caught the last fish and polluted the last river will you realise that you can’t eat money”. This quote was cited by Shiva in 2007 questioning the real meaning of sustainability in the environment. This quote portrays a criticism on the foresee result of overloading destruction on the natural resources and the environment from the world’s development. It condemns the envisioned irony of exhausting all of the natural resources for economic development, neglecting the fact that it will lead to mankind’s inability to suffice their basic life necessities – tree for producing oxygen, fish representing food and river representing water. This proclaims the idea of money shall not be the only thing mankind ought for; underlying the judgment of mankind being dominated by money. This quote fundamentally correlates to today’s town planning strategies’ issues and limitations, which can be further expatiated on by classifying them into different aspects as follows.
The existing environmental problems the Earth now face are interconnected to each other and they are growing exponentially – growing population, wasting use of resources, pollutions, distinction of plants and animals, widening poverty gap, etc. In agreement with Miller (1993), A sustainable society manages its economy and population size without exceeding all or part of then planet’s ability to absorb environmental insults, replenish its resources, and sustain human and other forms of life over a specified period – usually hundreds to thousands of years. Eventually the natural resources will no longer suffice mankind’s needs and the Earth will no longer be capable of absorbing, diluting, and degrading the out-turning waster and pollution. “Even the improved food crops and methods can never keep up with an unrestricted expansion of population” (Tuve, 1976.) It is starting to shows signs that the developmental plans are getting into a more dangerous position due to the undermine aftermaths from drastic environmental changes.
Planning, in this case, can take measures to find the solutions to the core issues. Flood-prone areas should ideally be avoided for people to live in in the future, as climate change will unquestionably increase the threat to their lives – the rising sea levels, storm surges and intense rainfall. Paradoxically, shortage of water will not only result in droughts, but also will shift the seasonal precipitation patterns, producing drier and warmer summers (IPCC, 2001a.) Places with a less reliable rainfall should not be counted on for supplying water so as not to cause problems in the demographic and economic growth. On top of the examples above, the growing population today is the crux to all drawbacks, its need for food, energy, water and natural resources leads to significant consequences to the world’s land use changes. These changes, however, alone do not have a global standard as they depend on different people, cultural, social, economical and regional needs.
In agreement with Purvis (2013), economic performance has historically been a crucial measure of a region’s success and state of development. Economic activity affects both environmental quality and stocks of natural capital and its production is socially and environmentally disruptive. The production in manufacturing does not only consumes raw materials and natural resources for energy, but also creates pollution to the environment – wastes and emissions. However, the current environmental concerns extend far beyond localized pollution or exhaustion of resources. Economic production causes globalized problems of a decline in biodiversity and extreme climate change.
Myer (1997) suggested that existing levels of economic output might be redistributed so that the needs of all the world’s people are met. Reforms in business shall be able to protect the environment by being detrimental to the scarce of resources, energy consumption reduction and by keeping waste disposal to a minimum. Restating to the quote by Shiva, economic production is of high importance yet affording protection to the natural habitat shall be of our prime concern.
As addressed in Our Common Future (1987), sustainable development in a society requires a social system that provides for solutions for the tensions arising from the disharmonious development. The environmental and social concerns in today’s development come hand in hand as they are directly intercorrelated. The locality is where the consequences of environmental degradation are most keenly experienced. It is beyond the question that it is essential for human health and wellbeing to have a clean and nutritious environment. Yet in present day, the continual destruction from all kinds of development to mankind’s essentials, that are clean water, fresh air, food and raw materials, will put their relations through expanding tensions. “Conflict will grow and public health, personal safety and other negative social factors will increase in the face of ecological threats and decreased access to nature’s services and resources” (Cook, 2004.)
It is pivotal that governments devise policies and strategies and give utterance to the many principles of sustainable development, namely, social justice, social inclusion, citizenship and sustainable environmental and economic practices. Regional town planning representatives must examine the environment information prior to make headway to any plans in order to meet both the environmental and social targets.
CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATIONS
The global challenge of sustainability is now understood to lie in the complex interdependencies of environmental, social and economic development (Potter, 2004). Shiva’s quote is a factual reflection of the orientation of today’s society, no obstruction shall be allowed to taking measures when environmental problems will cast a direct influence onto mankind – all aspects shall be taken in consideration in all town plans to strike a balance before it is too late when we realize money is all that we have left.