Lecture 5

CE-422 Sustainable Development and Disaster Risk

Management

Instructor:
Dr. Shahid Ullah
[email protected]

Earthquake Engineering Center

Department of Civil Engineering, UET Peshawar.
 Course Objectives
• Sustainable development: The objective is to
encourage the students in exploring the
challenges that society is facing and to
understand the role of Civil Engineers in the
society. To understand the interactions between
the Civil Engineering profession, physical
infrastructure, and social institutions.

• Disaster Risk Management: The purpose of this

course is to provide an introduction to the roles
of Engineers and Planners in Disasters response
and preparedness. Engineers and Planners are
concerned with the long-term aspects of
disaster: the processes of pre-disaster mitigation
and post disaster recovery. The course will only
minimally touch on disaster response and
emergency preparedness.

• To introduce students with the tools and

approaches to deal with complexity and
uncertainty
 Course Outline
Week Weekly Lectures CLOs PLOs Remarks
1 Introduction to sustainability the Humanity and environment and its 1 7 To be taught from chapter 1 of the book
state; IPAT Equation; Sustainability Challenges "Sustainability a comprehensive foundation"
Part 1

2 Introduction to sustainability the Humanity and environment and its 1 7 To be taught from chapter 1 of the book
state; IPAT Equation; Sustainability Challenges "Sustainability a comprehensive foundation"
Part 2

3 Development of Public policy; Role of civil engineers in the society; 1 7 Chapter 2 of "Sustainability a comprehensive
Sustainability and Public Policy; Environmental Risk Management foundation"
Part 1 Chapter 1 of "Sustainable Development in
Practice"
4 Development of Public policy; Role of civil engineers in the society; 1 7 Chapter 2 of "Sustainability a comprehensive
Sustainability and Public Policy; Environmental Risk Management foundation"
Part 2 Chapter 1 of "Sustainable Development in
Practice"
5 Definitions; Sustainable Development; Complex engineering Problems. 1 7 Chapter 1 “ The Age of Sustainable Development”
Introduction to the tools and approaches for solving complex problems, Chapter 1 “Systems approach to management of
Multi Criteria Decision Making and Analysis Concepts disasters”
Chapter 12 “ Sustainable development in
practice”
6 Life Cycle Assessment, Scopes of LCA, Methodology of 1,2 5,7 1. Sustainable development in
LCA, Software for LCA practice
2. The age of sustainable
development
3. Sustainability: a comprehensive
foundation
7 System Thinking, Causal Loop diagrams, Guidelines for 1,2 5,7 1.Business dynamics: system thinking
 Course Outline
Week Weekly Lectures CLOs PLOs Remarks

9 Overview of Disasters; Basic Disasters Concepts and Social 1 7

Contexts of Disasters
10 Hazard, Vulnerability and Risk (Probability and Statistics) 1 7
Concepts
11 A broad understanding of Disaster Risk Management, 1 7
including prevention / preparedness before Disasters and
recovery / reconstruction after Disasters.
12 Disaster Mitigation-Recovery policy and Disaster risk 2 7
management of national level with practical system and
laws
13 Creation of Pakistan emergency management system 2 7

14 Introduction to risk management tools 1 7

15 Flood Risk Management 1 7

16 Earthquake Risk Management 1 7

Final Term Exam 1,2,3 5,7

Books
 Week 5 : Lecture No. 5

LIFE CYCLE THINKING AND LIFE CYCLE

ASSESSMENT (LCA)
 Learning Objectives
The students shall be able to
• Learn to view problem solving in a systematic and
holistic manner

• Understand the basic elements of life cycle

analysis

• Become aware of available tools for conducting

life cycle analysis
 Measuring tools for Sustainability
• “What gets measured gets done is an oft-
quoted saying (attributed to many individuals)
that attempts to capture the essential role of
quantification in order to understand a
system, solve a problem, advance a cause, or
establish a policy.” (Theis, T)
 Life Cycle Assessment
• LCA is an emerging science that focuses on
understanding material and energy flows to and
through different kinds of human-created systems.

• This is essential for framing problems that need to be

solved in a holistic way.

• Topics such as recycling and reuse of materials, energy

efficiency, organizational structures ,supply chains, the
social impacts of decisions and the economics of
product developments.

• Also termed as "the science of sustainability"

 Objectives of LCA
• LCA's are carried out for two main reasons:
• (a) to analyze all the steps in a product chain
and see which use the greatest amount of
energy and materials or produce the most
waste, and
• (b) to enable comparisons among alternative
products or supply chains and to see which
one create the least environmental impact
 Objectives of LCA
• LCA is the notion of trade-offs; the
recognition that in a finite world choosing one
product, pathway, or way of living has
consequences for environmental and social
well-being.
• Of course choices must be made, but the goal
of quantifying the implications of our actions
as holistically as possible is to avoid
consequences that are unintended.
Material and Energy Flows
Waste to Product ratio
 General LCA
A complete LCA assessment defines a system as
consisting of four general stages of the product or
service chain, each of which can be further broken
down into substages:
1. Acquisition of materials (through resource
extraction or recycled sources)
2. Manufacturing, refining, and fabrication
3. Use by consumers
4. End-of-life disposition (incineration, landfilling,
composting, recycling/reuse)
 Various Scopes of LCA
• Cradle-to-grave: includes the entire
material/energy cycle of the product/material,
but excludes recycling/reuse.
• Cradle-to-cradle: includes the entire material
cycle, including recycling/reuse.
• Cradle-to-gate: includes material acquisition,
manufacturing/refining/fabrication (factory gate),
but excludes product uses and end-of-life.
• Gate-to-gate: a partial LCA looking at a single
added process or material in the product chain.
 Various Scopes of LCA
• Well-to-wheel: a special type of LCA involving the
application of fuel cycles to transportation vehicles.

• Embodied energy: A cradle-to-gate analysis of the life cycle

energy of a product, inclusive of the latent energy in the
materials, the energy used during material acquisition, and
the energy used in manufacturing intermediate and final
products.

• Embodied energy is sometimes referred to as emergy, or

the cumulative energy demand (CED) of a product or
service.
 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

International Organization for Standardization (1997) defines LCA as:

• “A compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential

environmental impacts of a product throughout its life cycle”

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 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Methodology

LCA methodology is standardized

by ISO standards (1997-1998 a-c)

1. Goal and Scope Definition

(ISO, 14041)
2. Inventory Analysis
(ISO, 14041)
3. Impact Assessment
(ISO, 14042)
4. Interpretation
(ISO, 14043)

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 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Goal and Scope Definition (ISO,

14041)

• Definition of purpose and

intended use
• System and its boundaries
• Functional Unit
• Data quality and assumptions
and limitations of study

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 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Inventory Analysis(ISO, 14041)

➢The inventory analysis step involves the collection of information on the

use of energy and various materials used to make a product or service at
each part of the manufacturing process.
➢If it is true that scoping is the most important step in an LCA then the
inventory is probably the most tedious since it involves locating, acquiring,
and evaluating the quality of data and specifying the sources of
uncertainties that may have arisen.
➢For products that have been produced for a long time and for which
manufacturing processes are well known, such as making steel, concrete,
paper, most plastics, and many machines, data are readily available.
➢But for newer products that are either under development or under
patent protection, data are often considered proprietary and are generally
not shared in open sources.
➢Uncertainty can arise because of missing or poorly documented data,
errors in measurement, or natural variations caused by external factors.

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 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Impact Analysis
• The life cycle impact assessment
(LCIA) takes the inventory data
on material resources used,
energy consumed, and wastes
emitted by the system and
estimates potential impacts on
the environment.

21
 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Interpretation
• is the final step in the LCA study,
it occurs thoughout the analysis.
• It is a systematic method where
the outcomes of the LCIA are
classified, quantified, checked,
and evaluated.
• Interpretations will result in
appropriate conclusions and
recommendations.

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 Tools For Conducting LCA
• The Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions,
and Energy Use in Transportation Model
(GREET)
• SimaPro
• Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of
Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts
(TRACI)
• Economic Input Output Life Cycle Assessment
(EIO-LCA)
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 Conclusions
The life cycle approach is a useful way to come to an
understanding of the material and energy needed to make a
product or deliver a service, see where wastes are
generated, and estimate the subsequent impacts that these
wastes may have on the environment. It is a good way to
improve a product chain, articulate tradeoffs, and make
comparisons among alternative processes and products. In
these contexts LCA facilitates decision making by managers,
designers, and other stakeholders. Most importantly, LCA is
a way of framing policy options in a comprehensive and
systematic way.
 Economic growth parameters
Measuring the size of Economy:
• Economists typically summarize a country’s overall economic development by gross domestic
product (GDP) per person.
• GDP: GDP measures the market value of total production ( goods and services) within the
physical boundaries of the country in a given time period (i.e, year).
• GDP/capita: Gross domestic product per capita (GDP per person) is simply GDP divided by
the population of country.
• Since, GDP is the size of the overall economic pie, the GDP per capita is the size of the
average slice per person.
• GDP per capita, which gives an indication of the relative living standards across countries
• GDP of Pakistan/Capita: The Gross Domestic Product per capita in Pakistan was last
recorded at 1,357 US dollars in 2019.
• GWP: It is the combined GDP of countries of world
• GNP. It is the measure of production of native person or corporation abroad excluding the
domestic production by foreigners

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 Economic Growth Parameters
• GNP: Gross national product (GNP) is an estimate of total value of all the final products
and services turned out in a given period by the means of production owned by a
country.
• Example: Suppose the country is an oil exporter, and the government owns two-thirds
of the oil, while foreign companies own one-third. The GDP would count all of the oil
produced within the country, but national income would include only the two-thirds of
the oil owned by the government. We give the name gross national product (GNP) to the
income-based measure.
• Economic Growth Definition: Economic growth, in simplest terms, measures the
change in GDP over a given period. Economic growth signifies an increase in GDP.

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 Economic growth parameters
• “Rule of 70”; a thumb rule for economic growth, or can generally be used for any kind
of growth.
• The idea explains; Consider the growth rate of the world economy, say 2% per year
increase of the GWP per person. Take 70 and divide it by annual growth rate, i-e, in this
case 70 divided by 2, we get 35.
• From this we determine the number of years it takes for the economy to double in size.
• So an economy growing 2% per year will double in 35 years.
• if the global growth heats up to 4% per year, the doubling time therefore drops by half,
to 17.5 years (= 70/4).

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 Growth of China
• China in recent times have shown the world, what growth really means.
• There has been no example of rapid economic growth more remarkable than
China. Since 1978, China has been among the fastest-growing economies in the
world.
• Remember the rule of 70. A growth of 10% means that China has been doubling
its GDP roughly every 7 years (= 70/10). This is amazing.
• China’s economy has grown at this rate for almost 35 years, which means their
GDP doubled 5 times in 35 years, (= 35years/7 years per doubling). It also
means that the economy has grown roughly by a factor of (2^5).

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 Growth of China
• To appreciate China’s
accomplishment in
economic growth, a
comparison of Shenzhen
city in 1980 and now:
• In 1980, Shenzhen was a
small, mainly rural
village of some 30,000
people, as seen in the
figure.

29
 Growth of China
• Now, just after 3 decades,
with nearly 10 million people,
this modern metropolis city is
incomparable with its roots.
• More than 200 million people
have flocked from the
countryside to cities like
Shenzhen in search of new
jobs in industry and services.
• China has become the world’s
largest trading country and the
industrial workshop of the
world.

30
 Recent growth of China
• With transformation to modern economic growth, several aspects of China’s have also transformed and improved.
I. Low Child mortality.
II. Improved public health.
III. Economic shift from rural to urban.
IV.Shift from agriculture to industrialization.
V. Raised and strong educational standards.
VI.China now turns out more PhD per year than any other place in the
world.

31
 Downside with China’s economic
growth
• We must not leave the impression that all is well with China’s economic growth.
• The three serious downsides are:
I. Firstly, the rapid transition from rural to urban and farming to industry
have disrupted the lives of millions of families, causing mass migration
within China.
II. Second, the inequality of income. Workers in urban areas have advanced
in living standards, while those left behind in countryside remained
stagnated (undeveloped).
III.Third, the physical environment has been devastated, with massive
pollution.
• China, in short, has achieved rapid economic growth but has not yet achieved sustainable development, meaning growth that
is also socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable.

32
 References
• Azapagic, A., Perdan, S., & Clift, R. (2004).
Sustainable Development in Practice. John
Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• Sachs, J. (2014). THE AGE OF SUSTAINABLE.
Coulombia University Press.
• Theis, T., & Tomkin, J. (n.d.). Sustainability : A
Comprehensive Foundation.
 Sustainable Development Concept
1. Sustainable Development as an Analytical and Normative Concept:
“Normative”, generally means relating to an evaluative standard. A norm in this normative
sense means a standard for evaluating or making judgments about behavior or outcomes.
“Normative means good or desirable behavior”
What is Sustainable Development?
• “Sustainable development is the organizing principle for meeting human
development goals while simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to
provide the natural resources and ecosystem services based upon which
the economy and society depend.”
• Sustainable development is a central concept for our age. It is both a way of
understanding the world and a method for solving global problems. Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) will guide the world’s economic diplomacy in the coming
generation.

34
 Sustainable Development an
• In order to discuss Analytical
sustainable development,Concept
the first point to consider is our crowded
planet. There are now around 7.2 billion people on the planet, roughly 9 times the 800
million people estimated to have lived in 1750, at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
population continues to rise rapidly, by around 75 million people per year. Soon enough
there will be 8 billion by the 2020s, and perhaps 9 billion by the early 2040s
(Sustainable Development Solutions Network [SDSN] 2013a, 2, 5).
“World population in 2020 is 7.8 billions”
• The reason to discuss the above statistics is to point towards the issue that, “every class
of human race, either poor, middle class or rich, every person wants to put their part in
economic growth in order to improve their living standards.
• In short 7.2 billion people are looking for economic improvement. They are doing so in
a world economy that is increasingly interconnected through trade, finance,
technologies, production flows, migration, and social networks. The scale of the world
economy, now estimated to produce $90 trillion of output per year (a sum called the
gross world product, or GWP), is unprecedented (SDSN 2013a, 2).

35
 Sustainable Development an
Analytical Concept
• Humanity is changing Earth’s climate, the availability of fresh water, the ocean’s flow
patterns, and the habitats of other species. These impacts are now so large that they
are adversely affecting the functioning of key processes such as the cycles of water,
nitrogen, and carbon upon which life depends. They are extremely dangerous and
unexpected in the span of humanity’s 10,000 years of civilization.

• We arrive at sustainable development. As an intellectual approach,

sustainable development tries to make sense of the interactions of
three complex systems: the world economy, the global society, and
the Earth’s physical environment.

36
 Sustainable Development an
•
Analytical Concept
It is a holistic(interconnected) framework, in which society aims for economic, social,
and environmental goals. Sometimes the following shorthand is used: SDGs call for
socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable economic growth.”
• To achieve the economic, social, and environmental objectives of the SDGs, a fourth
objective must also be achieved: good governance.
• For example: Governments must carry out many core functions to enable societies to
prosper. Among these core functions of government are the provision of social
services such as health care and education; the provision of infrastructure such as
roads, ports, and power; the protection of individuals from crime and violence; the
promotion of basic science and new technologies; and the implementation of
regulations to protect the environment.

• Thus, the normative side of sustainable development envisions four basic objectives of
a good society: economic prosperity; social inclusion and cohesion; environmental
sustainability; and good governance by major social actors, including governments
and business.

37
 Embracing Complexity
• In addition to being a normative (ethical) concept, sustainable development is also a science of complex
systems.
• System:
“A system is a group of interacting components that together with the rules for their
interaction constitute an interconnected whole, in order to achieve a certain goal.”
• For Example:
i. The brain is a system of interacting neurons; the human body is a
system of some 10 trillion individual cells, with those cells
interacting in systematic ways in various organ systems
(circulatory system, nervous system, digestive system, etc.).
ii. The economy is a system of millions of individuals and businesses,
bound together in markets, contracts, laws, public services, and
regulations.

38
 Complex Systems
• Sustainable development involves not just one but four complex interacting systems.
i. It deals with global economy, that now spans every part of
the world.
ii. It focuses on social interactions of trust, ethics, inequality
and social support networks in communities.
iii. It analyzes the change to complex Earth systems such as
climate and ecosystems.
iv. It also studies the problems of governance, including the
performance of governments and businesses.
• Complex systems require a certain complexity of thinking as well. It is a mistake to believe that the
world’s sustainable development problems can be boiled down to one idea or one solution.
• A skilled sustainable development practitioner needs to be a complex-systems expert, acknowledging
the complexity of the issues and looking to make a specific diagnosis of each specific case.

39
 Improvements in Global Health
• With the growth in GWP per capita and technological advancements, public health have
also improved.
• Advances in technology in agriculture and industry have also been accompanied by rapid
advances in health technologies, including medical advances such as antibiotics,
vaccinations, diagnostics, and vast improvements in surgery, as well as advances in other
fields with major health benefits, such as improved provision of water supplies, sewerage,
and household sanitation.
• In around 1950, the IMR (Infant mortality rate) was 13.4%, means for every 1000
children who were born an estimated 134 would die at birth under 1 year. (= 134/1000)
• Now, it is heartening that IMR has come down sharply to 37 per 1000, means 3.7% which
is a great accomplishment of economic development and public health systems.
• With more children surviving and with health improving at older ages, the good news is
that we have higher life expectancy.

40
 Improvements in Global Health
• During 1950 to 1955, the average life expectancy for entire world population was around
47 years.
• Today, the estimated life expectancy at birth is roughly 71 years. It is as high as 80 years
in high-income countries.
• This tremendous increase in longevity is another benefit of economic growth and
exemplifies the broad trend of improvement being achieved in most parts of the world.
• However, as discussed earlier in case of China that rapid economic growth is not
sufficient to ensure well-being. We must ensure that economic growth is environmentally
sustainable, so that it does not affect the earth’s life support systems such as soil
productivity, safe climate etc.
• Unless economic growth is combined with social inclusion and environmental
sustainability, the economic gains will always be short-lived.

41
 Global Environmental threats
caused by Economic Development

• Other than climate, several of earth’s natural systems are also affecting:
I. Depletion of fresh water sources (underground aquifers).
II. Use of chemical fertilizers used for crop productivity.
III. Clearing forests to create new farmlands.
IV. Pollution caused by industrial processes, especially combustion of coal.
V. Raised ocean’s acidity dramatically could kill off massive amount of marine
life.

42
 Planetary Boundaries
• Due to the use of natural resources with no
boundary limits that in turn caused several
devastating events around the globe such as
storms, floods, drought and heat waves and
many more, scientists have argued to identify
safe operating limits for the planet or define
“planetary boundaries”.
• The figure shows scientist’s visualization of
planetary boundaries. To read it, start at 12 o
clock and move clockwise.
• The red shaded area shows the scientists
assessment of how far the world is from
exceeding each of these boundaries.
• In case of nitrogen cycle and biodiversity
loss, we have already exceeded planetary
boundaries.
• We need fundamental change of strategy for
using earth resources and to achieve
sustainable development.

43
 Pathways to Sustainable
•
Development
Sustainable development consists of two parts:
i. Analytical part: To understand the interlinkages of the
economy, society, environment and politics.
ii. Normative part: To set sustainable development goals
(SDGs) and to achieve them.
• To achieve sustainable development goals, we need to promote inclusive and sustainable
economic development and combine the economic, social and environmental and most
important of all good governance objectives.
• Good governance not only applies to government but also to private businesses.
• It means that both the public sector (government) and the private sector (business) operate
according to the rule of law, with accountability, transparency, responsiveness to the needs of
stakeholders, and with the active engagement of the public on critical issues such as land use,
pollution, and the fairness and honesty of political and business practices.

44
 References

• Jeferry D Sachs (2014). Age of Sustainable Development

• Azapagic A, P Slobodan and Clift Roland (2004). Sustainable
Development in Practice: Case Studies for Engineers and
Scientists
• Wikipedia ( Last accessed on April, 2020)
• https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rule-of-70.asp
• SlideShare ( Approaches of Life Cycle Assessment)
• https://www.pre-sustainability.com/news/characterisation-new-
developments-for-toxicity
• http://css.umich.edu/factsheets/us-material-use-factsheet

45
Supplementary Material of the Lecture

46
 Global Population (10,000 BC-
•
Present)
This figure measures the world
population over a very long stretch of
time.
• This is the time when human beings
shifted from hunting and gathering their
food to growing it in one place.
• The period before agriculture is known
as Paleolithic Era (Paleo = old + lithic =
Stone).
• The period after the start of agriculture is
known as the Neolithic Era (Neo = new
+ lithic = Stone).
• Around 1820 or so, humanity reached the
great milestone of a billion people on the
planet, then from 1820 to around 1930,
in roughly one century, the second billion
was added and so on.
• The reason for rise in world’s
population is the increased ability to
grow more food and feed a rising
population.

47
 Global Environmental threats
•
caused by Economic Development
The figure shows fluctuating levels of CO2
in the atmosphere over the past 800,000
years.
• In general, CO2 rises and falls like the teeth
of a saw. These fluctuations are natural
because of the change in earth’s orbital
patterns around the sun.
• Scientists have shown that whenever the
atmospheric concentration of CO2 was
high, the Earth tended to be warm.
• At the right hand side of the graph, the
concentration of CO2 has shot up
abruptly. It is because burning of fossil
fuels.
• Notice that this is the highest level of
CO2 concentration reached in the past
800,000 years.

48
 Age of modern economic growth
• Economic historians call the period
since 1750 the “age of modern
economic growth.”
• Period of 1750 to 1850 is considered
as the Industrial Revolution.
• This period is considered as central
period for economic growth study.
• The figure shows the positive
economic growth starting around
1750.

49
 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Global warming
• Ozone depletion
• Non-renewable resource depletion;
• Acidification;
• Eutrophication;
• Photochemical oxidant formation (photochemical
or summer smog);
• Human toxicity;
• Aquatic toxicity.
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 Continuing Poverty in the Midst of
Plenty
• In the present, we are living in the era of plenty.
Economic growth, as discussed earlier has
produced great wealth, such as China, but still
most parts of the world remain stuck in the
extreme poverty.
• The most urgent economic challenge on the
planet is to help populations still living at the
edge of survival to achieve economic growth
and escape from poverty.
• The picture shows a smallholder farmer hidden
behind a great bale of grain carried by his
donkey. No modern transport, no electricity grid.
• These farm households try to ensure enough
annual food production to feed themselves and
their families.

51
 Continuing Poverty in the Midst of
Plenty
• This picture shows the urban face of extreme
poverty.
• Often urban poverty borders right up against
great urban wealth.
• These people also have no reach to modern
sewerage system, household sanitation.
• They buy their water from water trucks,
because there is no piped water connections to
individual households, not even shared public
water stands.
• In short, these people are unable to secure
basic needs, such as health, electricity, enough
nutrition, safe water and sanitation.

52
 Poverty and Extreme Poverty
• Poverty: Poverty is defined as “the lack of adequate income”.
• Extreme Poverty: It is a multi-dimensional concept. “The inability to meet basic
human needs for food, water, sanitation, safe energy, education and a livelihood.”
• Extreme poverty means that households cannot secure decent schooling for their
children. There may be no school nearby, or no qualified teacher, or a school that
charges tuition beyond the household’s income.
• About 2.5 billion people, can be categorized as living in extreme poverty.
• They worry about:
a. Whether they will have enough to eat.
b. Unsafe water can cause life threatening disease.
c. Malaria, as they cannot afford basic medical
treatment.

53
 Extreme Poverty as per GDP
• This color coded world map shows the
GDP per person around the globe.
• As a general principle, economies with
low GDP per capita also tend to be places
where households live in extreme poverty.
• The map gives us a clear picture that the
poorest countries in the world are
concentrated in tropical sub-Saharan
Africa.
• The next poorest region, also home to
large number of people living in extreme
poverty is, South Asia. Though the GDP is
still higher than in Africa, but due to vast
population many people still lives in
extreme poverty.
• Also, regions in South America and
Central Asia that are landlocked have
poverty due to geographical difficulty.

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 IMR due to Extreme Poverty
• This color coded world map shows the
infant mortality rate (deaths of
children under 1 year per 1000 births)
due to extreme poverty.
• Once again, the concentration of child
mortality lies in tropical Africa and
parts of South Asia.
• More than 300 children die under 1
year, per 1000 births in African
region.
• This is due to facing a burden of
disease and unavailability of basic
health care.

55
 Wealth and Poverty
• In countries where majority of the population
has escaped from extreme poverty, still
contains significant pockets of poverty.
• This picture shows the example of Brazil, as
most of the poor are able to meet their basic
needs (cannot be categorized as extreme
poverty) but are still vastly poorer than their
richer urban neighbors.
• There are practical approaches in sustainable
development that can help even poorest of
the poor to meet their basic needs.
• Many organizations like Community Health
Workers (CHWs) brings health care to people
who otherwise be disconnected from the
health system.

56
 Global Environmental threats
caused by Economic Development
• Over time, human beings have greatly developed economically. Gross world product
per person, now at 12,000 per person, combined with a global population of 7.2 billion
people, means that the annual world output is at least 100 times larger than at the start
of the Industrial Revolution.
• Keeping in mind the field of sustainable development, humans have made serious threat
to the natural environment.
• Large-scale economic activity is changing the Earth’s climate, water cycle, nitrogen
cycle, and even its ocean chemistry.
• Also humans using so much land is causing depletion of other species on planet, driving
them to extinction.
• This crisis is affecting every class of people (rich & poor).

57
 Global Environmental threats
caused by Economic Development
• This picture shows Manhattan during
Superstorm sandy, one of the strongest storms
to hit the Eastern Seaboard in modern times.
• Scientists determined that human-induced
climate change greatly amplified the impact of
the storm.
• In 2012, the ocean level off the Eastern
Seaboard of the US was one-third of a meter
high than a century earlier, the result of global
warming causing a rise in ocean levels around
the world.

58
 Global Environmental threats
caused by Economic Development
• Not only Superstorm sandy was
climate-related shock to US.
• This picture shows crops,
suffered major losses as a result
of a mega drought and heat wave
in the Midwest and western
grain-growing regions in the
United States.
• Drought conditions have
continued to burden some parts
of the U.S. West since then, with
California in an extreme drought
as of 2014.

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 Global Environmental threats
•
caused by Economic Development
Bangkok experienced astounding floods in
October 2011. Indonesia experienced heavy
flooding in early 2014, while Australia
suffered another devastating heat wave.
• All these events massively damaged property,
loss of life, disruptions to the global economy
etc.
• The floods in Bangkok, for example, flooded
automobile parts suppliers, shutting down
assembly lines in other parts of the world
when the parts failed to arrive.
• One thing is clear that all these disasters are
varied, but source is one broad category,
climate-related catastrophes.

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 Pathways to Sustainable
Development
• Sustainable development is considered as scientifically and morally based problem
solving.
• We indeed have a lot of problems covering different aspects such as inequality in
wealth, life threatening diseases, technology systems deployed crossing planetary
boundaries and many more.
• So, we need globally interconnected/coordinated efforts in short period of time in
order to change our trajectory to Sustainable Development.
• We need to work hard in determining new creative paths to achieve and ensure
inclusive and sustainable growth.
• The basic path to achieve this, is to describe the problem, identify a key
framework and analyze the problem and determine how to actually achieve SDGs.

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 Various Scopes of LCA
• Cradle-to-grave: includes the entire
material/energy cycle of the product/material,
but excludes recycling/reuse.
• Cradle-to-cradle: includes the entire material
cycle, including recycling/reuse.
• Cradle-to-gate: includes material acquisition,
manufacturing/refining/fabrication (factory gate),
but excludes product uses and end-of-life.
• Gate-to-gate: a partial LCA looking at a single
added process or material in the product chain.