Ecosystems and Sustainable Development

Abstract

Review: Ecosystems and Sustainable Development Editors: J.L. Uso, C.A. Brebbia, H. Power Reviewed by Dan Tufford University of South Carolina Uso, J.L., Brebbia, C.A., and Power, H.(editors). Ecosystems and Sustainable Development. Southhampton, UK: Computational Mechanics Publications, 1998. 680 p. US $295 cloth ISBN: 1-85312-502-4. Sustainable development research is a metascience in perhaps the truest sense of the word. Defining, justifying, and implementing sustainable practices transcends not just the basic, social, and applied sciences, but technology as well. Ecosystems and Sustainable Development is a strong volume because it captures this essential nature. The book contains the papers presented at the First International Conference on the subject held in Spain in 1997. The aim of the conference was to encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary communication amongst scientists, engineers, economists and professionals working in the different areas of ecological research. Readers have the opportunity to view a broad sampling of sustainability studies and the issues confronting the global community. The book is organized into three sections. The first is development economics, followed by conservation, management and recovery of endangered and degraded areas, and finally modeling of natural and human ecosystems. In a book with such a broad spectrum of subject material, commenting on specific papers will most likely reflect my own expertise and bias more than it will provide a reasonable critique of the comparative value of specific contributions. With this in mind, it is hoped the more general comments herein will provide more useful guidance to potential readers. Most noticeable is that most of the contributions make little or no mention of sustainability except, perhaps, in the title or introduction. Ideas, research, and results are presented without inter-relating them to sustainability issues or policy recommendations. The reader could just as likely be studying environmental modeling, agricultural economics, or whatever the paper discusses. It is certainly reasonable that those working in the field do not need to explain the connections to their peers, but given the intended audience, contributors could have given more attention to maximizing the potential for interdisciplinary communication. Such is the way of many scientists, however, and for