Book Description

This book reviews the key conceptions and economic theories of poverty, explains poverty-environment nexus, and finally offers innovative socio-economic and scientific geospatial solutions for the 21st Century. The book makes it possible for our readers to understand poverty thorough a concise review of the major theoretical economic frameworks, measures of poverty, and points out the need to understand rural-urban dichotomy of poverty. We find the theories and measures to be less-than perfect and therefore point out the need to treat these measures and theories as convenient tools lacking perfect accuracy and utmost scientific reliability. It follows then that the supposedly knowledgeably crafted poverty reduction and environmental preservation solutions are inherently imperfect. The economic solutions proposed in this book transcend extant humdrum macroeconomic and policy measures targeting poverty and environmental issues. We point to a new paradigm in which private sector and other stakeholders can create new and inclusive markets where value is co-created and shared. Above all, this book offers timely state-of-the-art geospatial solutions targeting the most pressing global problems of water, e.g., the use of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) missions to estimate changes in stored water in the water-poverty-environment nexus, pollution, agriculture and disaster management, where geospatial techniques are applied under strong environmental impact assessment regulatory regimes. This book provides a good summary of economic theories of poverty as well as a vivid depiction of the state of environmental degradation in the world. People often work separately on different issues that are, in fact, closely intertwined. The principle of holism is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and I believe that this joint-venture of two experts on poverty and environment has produced something more than a sum of two separate monographs on the issues. Various points raised in this volume are worth heeding when we think of formulation and implementation of a truly effective post-MDGs development agenda. Yoichi Mine, Professor of Human Security and African Area Study, Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University, Japan