As abordagens ecossistêmicas em saúde, ou Ecosaúde, buscam compreender a saúde humana a partir do estudo das interações entre os diversos componentes dos sistemas socioecológicos. Estas abordagens vinculam pesquisas científicas, experiências participativas e ação coletiva em múltiplos níveis, de modo a promover a saúde humana e a sustentabilidade dos ecossistemas.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19). Several countries responded to this threat by introducing quarantine measures to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the community. These measures have drastically reduced human activities, causing an impact on urban air pollution due to the associated reduction in automobile use and other polluting activities. We investigated this effect with measurements of Particulate Material (PM10), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Ozone (O3), carried out by the environmental departments of the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, for two months in 2020. We compared them with data for the corresponding months in 2019, relating to the social isolation index, measured by the Mathematics and Statistic Institute of São Paulo (IME-USP). The results show a significant decrease in NO2 and CO and an increase in O3, and little change in Particulate Material.

In Brazil, the process of localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using public databases faces technical, institutional and political challenges. There are essentially no comprehensive current studies regarding the downscaling of the SDG indicators at the smallest territorial levels (e.g., the municipal level). In the context of unprecedented health emergencies, such as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, this paper discusses the capacity of the Brazilian public information system to support the localization of SDG 3 (good health and well-being) indicators at the municipal level. This study evaluates the proposed indicators for SDG 3 and databases that underpin these indicators. The results and discussion cover central data and process deficiencies in the public health information systems that hinder SDG 3 localization efforts, the 2030 Agenda and its goal of universality.

The use of sustainable techniques to the basic infrastructure of a city is a way of win back public spaces. This study evaluates the impacts of public spaces supporting mobility. We give focus to areas constructed with porous pavement and integrated with infiltration trenches and hydrological processes. The hydrological simulation was performed with a SWAT model. The hydrographic basin has 54.05 km² and the area of excess flows' control is 0.66 km². The peak flow damping was 1.84%, and the surface runoff represented 2.82% of the water depth over the simulated period. We observed a maximum reduction of 7.9% in the height of the water layer for isolated events. We found positive results in the dampening of the peak flow in the basin exhaust and water flow reduction at the superficial runoff.

In 2015, the water crisis affecting the São Paulo Metropolitan Region reached its peak. The Federal Government published an Ordinance stablishing good practices in the management and use of water and electricity. This work aimed to verify if the management actions performed at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo were effective for water consumption reduction. It was analyzed secondary data of the monthly water consumption at campuses and Rectory, from 2014 to 2016. Statistical analyses were carried out comparing the water consumption between the periods pre- and post-intervention, which occurred in February 2015. The results show that the intervention reduced per capita water consumption by 33% in 2015 and 35% in 2016, saving up more than 65,000 m3 of water. These management actions were effective, and helped the academic population to achieve a more efficiently use of water and financial resources, becoming more sustainable.

Due to the construction of the Itaparica Hydroelectric Plant in 1988, the Tuxás were displaced from their lands and resettled, generating internal conflicts and various socio-environmental impacts. Historically dedicated to agriculture and fishing, the resettlement of Tuxás changed their livelihoods, affecting nutrition and their relationship with their livelihoods. For those who still have access to fishing on the São Francisco River, the availability of fish has been reduced as a result of water polluting eutrophication, due to the disposal of sewage and fertilizers. The results include new elements, often disregarded, to reexplore the socio-environmental trade-offs of the installation of hydroelectric plants in Brazil. He concludes by proposing alternative perspectives (mainly from the bottom up), to rethink the delicate balance between economic progress driven by energy generation in Brazil and also the negative impact on the livelihood of the country's most vulnerable communities.

The objective of this article is to highlight the sustainability capacity of pre-Columbian water management systems called jagüeyes or albarradas (detention ponds) compared with modern technologies like dams which are used today in coastal Ecuador. These are compared using interdisciplinary field research, which included ethnographic fieldwork with an observation of participative action projects and a literature review. In the case of tapes (arroyo or small river dams made by farmers or farm owners), the lack of participation and inclusion of social actors and their cultural knowledge about nature is evident. This regional study underlines how the albarradas system achieves long-term sustainability because it is an appropriate technology for the local communal ecosystem with which it is associated. This experience opens up the opportunity to explore the difference between what is currently promoted as sustainability and an alternative form of sustainability which introduces the sociocultural strand in public actions on environmental intervention.

The adequacy of the 2030 Agenda and the SDG is a new instrument that companies should implement within their innovative processes to improve social, environmental, and economic issues internally and externally. Thus, this work aims to diagnose the wheat and derivatives segment and the adoption/implementation of the 2030 Agenda and SDG to business practices. To this end, a sample of 91 companies of the wheat agribusiness and processing industry was studied, using the survey-based exploratory-descriptive methodology. Data collected underwent qualitative and quantitative analysis, which demonstrated that although many of the SDGs are under assessment for possible new integration with those remaining and those under implementation, the number of objectives already included in business practices is still trivial (38.4%, that is, about 6 out of 17).

La ganadería familiar de Uruguay cuenta con una diversidad de expresiones organizativas, generadas en función de diferentes necesidades, intereses comunes, e incluso sentimientos y valores. La cooperación para obtener beneficios individuales como colectivos, se da en diversos marcos de formalización y coordinación. A partir de entrevistas a referentes de colectivos de ganaderos familiares seleccionados en el Litoral Norte del país, se procuró comprender los procesos de coordinación de la acción colectiva en la región. Los resultados dan cuenta de procesos endógenos y/o exógenos, que reflejan las normas compartidas, aprendizajes, reglas de uso, como un medio para solucionar problemas de acción colectiva.