Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review: Africa is a component of Encyclopedia of Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Reviews in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review: Africa discusses matters of great relevance to our world in general and to the African Continent in particular as it deals with topics such as: International Cooperation for Sustainable Development in Africa; Food Security in Africa: Challenges and Prospects; Combating Poverty in Africa; Demographic Dynamics and Sustainability in Africa; Protection and Promotion of Human Health in Africa; Strategies for Promoting Human Development in Africa; Integrating Environment into Decision-Making in Africa; The Planning and Management of Land Resources in Africa; Combating Desertification and Drought in Africa; Conservation of Biological Diversity in Africa; Ecotoxicology of Stable Pollutants in African Marine Ecosystems; Safe and Environmentally Sound Management of Radioactive Waste; Strengthening Business and Industry for Sustainable Development in Africa; Concepts and Trends in Environmental Education for Sustainable Development; International Institutional Arrangements; International Legal Instruments and Mechanisms; Agreements: Forestry Principles: Focus on the Congo Basin Rainforests; The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development; Peace, Security, and Sustainable Development in Africa; Literature and Culture - The Sustainability Connection from an African Perspective; History and Civilizations: Impacts on Sustainable Development in Africa; The Sustainable Development of Tourism in Africa; Environmentally Displaced People These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review: Africa is a component of Encyclopedia of Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Reviews in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review: Africa discusses matters of great relevance to our world in general and to the African Continent in particular as it deals with topics such as: International Cooperation for Sustainable Development in Africa; Food Security in Africa: Challenges and Prospects; Combating Poverty in Africa; Demographic Dynamics and Sustainability in Africa; Protection and Promotion of Human Health in Africa; Strategies for Promoting Human Development in Africa; Integrating Environment into Decision-Making in Africa; The Planning and Management of Land Resources in Africa; Combating Desertification and Drought in Africa; Conservation of Biological Diversity in Africa; Ecotoxicology of Stable Pollutants in African Marine Ecosystems; Safe and Environmentally Sound Management of Radioactive Waste; Strengthening Business and Industry for Sustainable Development in Africa; Concepts and Trends in Environmental Education for Sustainable Development; International Institutional Arrangements; International Legal Instruments and Mechanisms; Agreements: Forestry Principles: Focus on the Congo Basin Rainforests; The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development; Peace, Security, and Sustainable Development in Africa; Literature and Culture - The Sustainability Connection from an African Perspective; History and Civilizations: Impacts on Sustainable Development in Africa; The Sustainable Development of Tourism in Africa; Environmentally Displaced People These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review: Russia theme is a component of Encyclopedia of Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. This two-volume publication on Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review: Russia reviews initiatives and activities towards sustainable development in Russia such as: Natural Resources as a Basis for Sustainable Development: Bioresourses - Russia; Water Resources for Sustainable Development, With Particular Reference to Russia; Protection of the Atmosphere in the Russian Federation; Protection of the Oceans and Their Living Resources; General Approach to Planning and Management of Land Resources; Combat Desertification, Deforestation and Drought; Biodiversity Conservation in Russia; Wastes as Resources for Sustainable Development; Wastes and Problems of Sustainable Development; Safe and Environmentally Sound Management of Radioactive Wastes in Russia; Economic Reform and Integration of Environmental; Protection and Promotion of Human Health-Russia; Combating Poverty in Russia; Global Action for Women Towards Sustainable and Equitable Development; Children and Youth in Sustainable Development in Russia; Recognizing and Strengthening the Role of Indigenous Peoples and Their Communities; Education, Public Awareness and Training in Russia; Development of Industrial Ecology in Russia; Strengthening the Role of Workers and Their Trade Unions; Technological Progress for Sustainable Development in Russia; Telecommunications Infrastructure Changes for Sustainable Development of Russia; High Technology and Health Care in Russia; Technology of Exploration and Management of Natural Resources; Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Russia; Protection of Intellectual Property and Commercialization of Technology; International Institutional Arrangements and Financial Assistance; International Legal Instruments and Mechanisms on the Environment; The Interaction of Branches of Power in the Transition to Sustainable Development in Russia; Management Responses to the Challenge of Sustainable Development in Russia. Although these presentations are with specific reference to Russia, they provide potentially useful lessons for other regions as well. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers, NGOs and GOs.

Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review: Canada and USA theme is a component of Encyclopedia of Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. This theme on Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review: Canada and USA reviews, in two volumes, initiatives and activities towards sustainable development in Canada and USA such as: International Cooperation in Sustainable Development; Canada and USA: Demographic Dynamics and Sustainability; Promotion and Protection of Human Health in the Context of Sustainable Development; Integration of Environment and Development in Decision Making; Protection of the Atmosphere, with Particular Reference to North America; Deforestation in North America; Protection of Fresh Water Resources - Canada and the United States of America; Hazardous Waste Management; Safe and Environmentally Sound Management of Radioactive Wastes in Canada and the USA; Global Action for Women Towards Sustainable and Equitable Development: A Canada-US Perspective; Children, Youth and Sustainable Development; Strengthening the Role of Indigenous People and Their Communities in the Context of Sustainable Development; Strengthening the Role of NGOs; Local Authorities Initiatives in Support of Agenda 21 - Canada and USA; Strengthening the Role of Workers and Their Trade Unions; Technology Transfer and Sustainable Development; Collaboration for Sustainable Innovation; Information for Decision Making in Sustainable Development; Climate Change and Sustainable Development Canada. Although these presentations are with specific reference to Canada and USA, they provide potentially useful lessons for other regions as well. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers, NGOs and GOs.

Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review: China theme is a component of Encyclopedia of Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. This theme on Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review: China reviews initiatives and activities towards sustainable development in China. Although these presentations are with specific reference to China, they provide potentially useful lessons for other regions as well. These three volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

Unity of Knowledge in Transdisciplinary Research for Sustainable Development theme is a component of Encyclopedia of Social Sciences and Humanities in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Today, there is a social need for a comprehensive unity of knowledge that would provide orientation and ensure action in the context of the complex problems of modern civilization. Based on an intellectual need for unity of knowledge, different concepts of unity of knowledge have emerged in the course of the history of ideas. The intellectual need for unity can be directed at the world, science, action or the individual. It can involve the quest for the unity of the world based on a principle that is immanent in it, the unity of science as a theoretical, methodical or epistemological unity, the unity of action as a correlation of scientific, pragmatic and moral knowledge or, finally, unity as the educational task of the individual. The concepts associated with unity of knowledge can go in two directions. The first assumes that there is a unity existing in the world that can be perceived by man. It is thought of as an order of being, i.e. an ontological unity of the plurality of phenomena, that consist in their common nature. The other direction is based on the assumption that unity is a construction of a subject, based on its cognitive principles and structures. Thus it is not something that can be discovered as an existing objective order, and is instead subjective. These two volumes present some aspects of Unity of Knowledge in Transdisciplinary Research for Sustainable Development in three parts. The purpose of the first part is to trace back the core ideas in transdisciplinary thinking in the history of western philosophy and science, to locate socially the concerns of transdisciplinary research and to give an account of the development of transdisciplinary research. The second group of chapters deals with methodological and management problems related to transdisciplinary research with regard to problem identification and structuring of research questions, with knowledge integration in problem investigation as well as with evaluation. An outline of the institutional measures and transformations to enable and support transdisciplinary research is given in the third part. Institutional strategies build on organizational arrangements and links across academic institutions in education and research, on networks between science and society for joint knowledge production in temporally limited settings of research programs or projects, but they also set up new institutions, such as centers for advanced studies, national offices, agencies and networks. These two volumes are aimed at a wide spectrum of audiences: University and College Students, Educators, Research Personnel and all those concerned with sustainable development.

Education for Sustainability is a component of Encyclopedia of Human Resources Policy, Development and Management in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on Education for Sustainability provides the essential aspects and a myriad of issues of great relevance connection between education and more sustainable futures and embraces a reality that all need to know. It demands a much broader interpretation of education--a holistic perspective that accommodates new and challenging ideas. Such education is imperative in creating the knowledge, wisdom and vision needed for the transition to a more sustainable world. In helping to design this sustainable future, education for sustainability implements a vital systemic perspective that will allow for a complex interdependence of all life forms and Earth. This volume is aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students, Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers and NGOs.

Interdisciplinary and Sustainability Issues in Food and Agriculture is a component of Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on Interdisciplinary and Sustainability Issues in Food and Agriculture provides the essential aspects and discusses a number of issues of importance in the development of specific agriculture and food supply systems that are closely related to general developmental trends of humankind. In this context technology and economic development as well as socio-cultural developments affect productivity and a secure supply with food. These three volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

Computational intelligence is a component of Encyclopedia of Technology, Information, and Systems Management Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Computational intelligence is a rapidly growing research field including a wide variety of problem-solving techniques inspired by nature. Traditionally computational intelligence consists of three major research areas: Neural Networks, Fuzzy Systems, and Evolutionary Computation. Neural networks are mathematical models inspired by brains. Neural networks have massively parallel network structures with many neurons and weighted connections. Whereas each neuron has a simple input-output relation, a neural network with many neurons can realize a highly non-linear complicated mapping. Connection weights between neurons can be adjusted in an automated manner by a learning algorithm to realize a non-linear mapping required in a particular application task. Fuzzy systems are mathematical models proposed to handle inherent fuzziness in natural language. For example, it is very difficult to mathematically define the meaning of “cold” in everyday conversations such as “It is cold today” and “Can I have cold water”. The meaning of “cold” may be different in a different situation. Even in the same situation, a different person may have a different meaning. Fuzzy systems offer a mathematical mechanism to handle inherent fuzziness in natural language. As a result, fuzzy systems have been successfully applied to real-world problems by extracting linguistic knowledge from human experts in the form of fuzzy IF-THEN rules. Evolutionary computation includes various population-based search algorithms inspired by evolution in nature. Those algorithms usually have the following three mechanisms: fitness evaluation to measure the quality of each solution, selection to choose good solutions from the current population, and variation operators to generate offspring from parents. Evolutionary computation has high applicability to a wide range of optimization problems with different characteristics since it does not need any explicit mathematical formulations of objective functions. For example, simulation-based fitness evaluation is often used in evolutionary design. Subjective fitness evaluation by a human user is also often used in evolutionary art and music. These volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers.

Agricultural Mechanization and Automation is a component of Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The mechanization of farming practices throughout the world has revolutionized food production, enabling it to maintain pace with population growth except in some less-developed countries, most notably in Africa. Agricultural mechanization has involved the partial or full replacement of human energy and animal-powered equipment (e.g. plows, seeders and harvesters) by engine-driven equipment. The theme on Agricultural Mechanization and Automation cover six main topics: Technology and Power in Agriculture; Farm Machinery; Facilities and Equipment for Livestock Management; Environmental Monitoring; Recovery and Use of Wastes and by-Products; Slaughtering and Processing of Livestock, which are then expanded into multiple subtopics, each as a chapter. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.