Geographic Applications in Sustainability: Understanding the Needs, Addressing the Issues
More than a quarter-century after it was originally identified in the 1987 United Nations publication Our Common Future, sustainable development or “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” remains the focus of active and innovative research in geography. The goal of sustainable development is oriented around the ‘three E’s’ of environmental protection, economic growth and social equity. However as the research and application of these elements are at times uneven, sustainability remains one of the great challenges for the 21st century. Balancing the needs of the collective with the individual, reconciling the influence of geographic scale, and understanding cross-cultural influences, are all critical considerations in sustainability. As such, the holistic worldview of geography and its attention to both the physical and human landscapes makes the discipline particularly well-suited for analysis and exploration of sustainability. This special edition of the International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities therefore provides a geographic perspective of sustainability and affords an outlet for some of the discipline’s emerging scholars to present their research.
Editors:
Christopher Cusack, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Geography
Keene State College
George Pomeroy, Ph.D., AICP
Professor
Department of Geography-Earth Science
Director
Center for Land Use
Shippensburg University
Samuel Thompson, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Geography
Western Illinois University