Innovative Approach for the Development of Sustainable Settlements in East Africa


Book Description

This book deals with sustainable affordable housing in developing countries, providing the main results of the BECOMe research project of the Politecnico di Milano. Sustainable, affordable housing in developing countries is increasingly important for African and international stakeholders, with massive urbanization processes involving many countries consuming large territories and natural resources minus any strategy of sustainability and social equality and without consideration of the long-term effects on the environment and subsequent generations. While the issue of affordable housing requires approaches adapted to the many specific African contexts, the case of Somalia seems representative of a fragile context characterized by the uncertainty of the social, political, and economic situations and the lack of common shared legislative references and strategies. The book aims to provide knowledge and propose a methodological framework developed from this particular situation that can serve as a template. On the basis of this main objective, the book deals with approaches and problems related to the creation of sustainable housing ecosystems, activating and boosting local enterprises and stimulating foreign investors to revamp the national AEC sector and related manufacturing industries, models for modular settlements, and business models and assessment methodologies useful for evaluating a set of appropriate technological solutions. Chapters 03 and 07 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.




DESIGN ENGINEERING JOURNEY


Book Description




Innovative Models for Sustainable Development in Emerging African Countries


Book Description

This open access book explores key issues and presents recent case studies in areas of importance for the transition to a circular model of development in emerging African countries that will minimize resource consumption and waste production. The topics covered include the development of sustainable housing models, energy and environmental issues in building design and technical systems, recycling for a sustainable future, models for humanitarian emergencies, and low-cost and web-based digital tools with applications in architecture and archaeology. The aim is to contribute to a necessary paradigm shift with respect to urban planning and usage of territories, moving from a linear urban metabolism based on the “take, make, dispose” approach to a circular metabolism. Such a change requires a focus on the relationship between the architectural, urban, and physical aspects of new developments, climate, and energy demand, as well as the identification and integration of strategies and infrastructures to achieve a high level of efficiency and self-sufficiency. The book will appeal to all with an interest in sustainable development in the African context.




Climate Vulnerability


Book Description

Climate change has been the subject of thousands of books and magazines, scientific journals, and newspaper articles daily. It’s a subject that can be very political and emotional, often blurring the lines between fact and fiction. The vast majority of research, studies, projections and recommendations tend to focus on the human influence on climate change and global warming as the result of CO2 emissions, often to the exclusion of other threats that include population growth and the stress placed on energy sources due to emerging global affluence. Climate Vulnerability, Five Volume Set seeks to strip away the politics and emotion that surround climate change and will assess the broad range of threats using the bottom up approach—including CO2 emissions, population growth, emerging affluence, and many others—to our five most critical resources: water, food, ecosystems, energy, and human health. Inclusively determining what these threats are while seeking preventive measures and adaptations is at the heart of this unique reference work. Takes a Bottom-Up approach, addressing climate change and the threat to our key resources at the local level first and globally second, providing a more accurate and inclusive approach. Includes extensive cross-referencing, which is key to readers as new connections between factors can be discovered. Cuts across a number of disciplines and will appeal to Biological Science, Earth & Environmental Science, Ecology, and Social Science, comprehensively addressing climate change and other threats to our key resources from multiple perspectives




Human Security and Sustainable Development in East Africa


Book Description

This book investigates contemporary human security issues in East Africa, setting forth policy recommendations and a research agenda for future studies. Human security takes a people-centered rather than state-centered approach to security issues, focusing on whether people feel safe, free from fear, want, and indignity. This book investigates human security in East Africa, encompassing issues as diverse as migration, housing, climate change, displacement, food security, aflatoxins, land rights, and peace and conflict resolution. In particular, the book showcases innovative original research from African scholars based on the continent and abroad, and together the contributors provide policy recommendations and set forth a human security research agenda for East Africa, which encompasses Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti. As well as being useful for policy makers and practitioners, this book will interest researchers across African Studies, Security Studies, Environmental Studies, Political Science, Global Governance, International Relations, and Human Geography. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license




Community Innovations in Sustainable Land Management


Book Description

It is increasingly recognized that land can be managed most sustainably through involving local communities. This book highlights the potential of a new methodology of uncovering and stimulating community initiatives in sustainable land management in Africa. Analyses of four contrasting African countries (Ghana, Morocco, South Africa and Uganda) show that as communities directly face the challenges of land degradation, they are likely to develop initiatives themselves in terms of sustainable land management. These initiatives (or ‘innovations’) may be more appropriate and sustainable than those emanating from research stations located far from the communities. The book describes the rationale of the approach used, the set of steps followed, how the project managed to engage the communities to understand the importance of the activities they were undertaking, and how they were stimulated to improve and extend their initiatives and innovativeness. Examples covered include soil fertility, community forestry, afforestation, water, invasive species and grazing land management. Central to the book is the way communities, and scientists, interacted between the four countries and learnt from each other. The book also shows how the initiatives were outscaled locally.




Sustainable Intensification


Book Description

Continued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.




Tropentag 2016


Book Description

The theme of 2016 is ”Solidarity in a competing world - fair use of resources”. While on the one hand, one part of the world is profiting from natural resources, the other part of the world is suffering with hunger, malnutrition, human diseases, low income, violence and lately is also challenged through climate change. There is need to rethink and engage in a fair share of all resources between the continents and nations. This includes huge engagement into the management of natural resources to solve the long list of environmental threats expressed through ongoing erosion, loss of soil fertility and loss of biodiversity, and topped by climate change having strong impact on the productivity in agriculture, fishery and forestry, and the use and quality of water and of energy in the South.




Urban Waste and Sanitation Services for Sustainable Development


Book Description

Urban sanitation and solid waste sectors are under significant pressure in East Africa due to the lack of competent institutional capacity and the growth of the region’s urban population. This book presents and applies an original analytical approach to assess the existing socio-technical mixtures of waste and sanitation systems and to ensure wider access, increase flexibility and ecological sustainability. It shows how the problem is not the current diversity in waste and sanitation infrastructures and services and variety of types and scales of technology, of formal and informal sector involvement, and of management and ownership modes. The book focuses instead on the lack of an integrative approach to managing and upgrading of the various waste and sanitation configurations and services so as to ensure wider access, flexibility and sustainability for the low income populations who happen to be the main stakeholders. This approach, coined "Modernized Mixtures", serves as a nexus throughout the book. The empirical core addresses the waste and sanitation challenges and debates at each scale - from the micro-level (households) to the macro-level (international support) - and is based on the results of a five-year-long interdisciplinary, empirical research program. It assesses the socio-technical diversity in waste and sanitation and provides viable solutions to sanitation and waste management in East Africa. This book provides students, researchers and professional in environmental technology, sociology, management and urban planning with an integrated analytical perspective on centralized and decentralized waste and sanitation configurations and tools for improvement in the technology, policy and management of sanitation and solid waste sectors.




Tending Animals in the Global Village


Book Description

A book like no other in the field of veterinary medicine with pertinent information every student and practitioner will find beneficial. Veterinaries have access to a great variety of texts, journals, and continuing education opportunities to keep them on top of the tremendous technological advances in clinical care and preventive medicine. Outside of the technical realm, however, there are many global trends, which exert profound effects on how the veterinary profession serves society and how veterinary professionals define their role in a rapidly changing world. This new and unrivaled book delves into these influences in impressive detail, identifying new challenges and opportunities for the veterinary profession in a global context. Unique topics covered include: The important global trends with implications for veterinary medicine. Different cultural attitudes towards the human use of animals, their impact on the human-animal relationship, and the challenges this poses for veterinarians. The role of livestock in food security, rural development, and sustainable agriculture and the opportunities for veterinarians to improve the lives of people who depend on animals around the world. The relationship of global environmental change to animal health and production. The emerging field of conservation medicine and the important role of veterinarians in protecting biodiversity and conserving wildlife. A global perspective on veterinary service delivery and the opportunities and challenges for improving animal health care worldwide. The growth of international trade, its relation to food safety and animal health, and its impact on animal agricultural and veterinary medicine. The growing risk of foreign animal disease, the national and international institutions involved in animal disease control, and the role of the private practitioner in controlling foreign animal disease. Nontraditional career paths for veterinarians interested in working internationally and how to identify and prepare for such international career opportunities.