Environmental System Research Paper 2022

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
Introduction
Globalization is the process of improvement that helps governments, communities and
countries by providing them with opportunities, so that they could achieve expansion, growth
and development in their processes1. Globalization has always been associated with the land use
related changes and human has always transformed the natural landscapes to agricultural fields,
construction sites and other aspects due to which majority of the natural forest habitats has been
destroyed2. As per recent global reports by European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme
for research (2019), over the past 50 years, more than 17% of the forest coverage has been lost
only in the Amazon and majority of these has been transformed for cattle ranching and
agricultural fields. Further, as per Nelson et al. (2016), more than 40% of the ice covered land
around the world has been transformed into crop fields over the past decades.
These development and transformations has improved the present situation and has
helped to satisfy hunger, shelter and clothing needs of humankind around the globe. However,
the principles of sustainability are at stake due to extensive use of natural resources that threatens
to compromise the needs of future generation3.
Therefore, the primary aim of this paper is to understand the principles of sustainability
and the way these transformations of forest lands into agricultural fields has affected the three
primary principles of sustainable development. Further, this paper will emphasis on the aspects
1 European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research. 2019. "How Agriculture And Forestry
Change Climate, And How We Deal With It". Luc4c.Eu. http://luc4c.eu/public_files/uploads/2015-05/LUC4C
%20booklet_web_How%20agriculture%20and%20forestry%20change%20climate.pdf.
2 Ali, Akhter, and Olaf Erenstein. "Assessing farmer use of climate change adaptation practices and impacts
on food security and poverty in Pakistan." Climate Risk Management16 (2017): 183-194.
3 Food and Agricultural Organisation of United Nations. 2019. "STATE OF THE WORLD’S
FORESTS". Fao.Org. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5588e.pdf.

2ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
of sustainability n land usages and will mention the challenges that may be faced by
communities while attaining the balance. Finally, it will provide an alternative by providing
recommendations for sustainable land use and in this prospect, would mention about the Elinor
Ostrom‘s alternative.
The transformation of forest land to agricultural field
As mentioned by Sirami et al. (2017), forests are in constant state of change as the human
race is constantly replacing extended forest lands into fields, agricultural lands and cattle
ranching places. As mentioned in a global report by European Union’s Seventh Framework
Programme for research (2019), currently forests cover 31% of the lands on earth and this
percentage has decreased by 17% over the past five decades. As mentioned in the United Nations
Food and Agricultural Organisation report (2019), the maximum deforestation took place in
1990s as during this phase every year earth lost 19 hectares of forest lands, upon which
agricultural fields, constrictions and other development took place. Further, reports of (2019)
mentions that the total agricultural filed coverage in the world stands around 11% currently and
the percentage of agricultural fields has increased at a sustainable pace. This is an important
aspects as Levy, Barry and Jonathan (2015) mentioned about the increasing hunger and needs of
the world population and to meet them, it is important to obtain crops, focus on infrastructure
and provide the population with their fundamental rights.
Land use changes and the effect on climate
While discussing about the changes or transformation of forest lands into agricultural
fields, the discussion about the effect these transformation brings in the ecosystem and

3ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
environment should be discussed4. As per Nelson et al. (2014), there are two primary aspects of
ecosystem or environmental changes that is observed due to such transformation, land-coverage
change related and land-use related. The land cover changes related transformation are
associated with the replacement of any natural forest or grassland, with agricultural field.
Whereas, the land use determines the way crop lands or forest lands are used, with application of
fertilizers, or decreasing the density of animal grazing in the field. Despite the fact that both of
these transformational changes affects the ecosystem and environment, their degree or severity
helps to differentiate between these two5. Land use related modifications are associated with the
greenhouse gas emission such as carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane
(CH4). As per Ali and Erenstein (2017), when humans transforms forest lands into agricultural
fields and implements their modern agricultural means such as usage of fertilizers, chemicals and
other aspects, then ample amount of natural greenhouse gases are emitted to the atmosphere and
as mentioned in this research more than 50% of the N2O in the atmosphere has been emitted by
the agricultural crops6. These greenhouse emission is responsible for global warming, and all the
drastic and adverse effects associated with it.
Another aspect that should be discussed in this section is harmful or adverse effects of
land use related harmful effects on climate and as mentioned by Anguelovski et al. (2017), these
changes are the biophysical changes due to which radiation and evapotranspiration related
complications are observed. Further, in majority of the cases, it was observed that the critical
4 Levy, Barry S., and Jonathan A. Patz. "Climate change, human rights, and social justice." Annals of
global health 81, no. 3 (2015): 310-322.
5 Anguelovski, Isabelle, Linda Shi, Eric Chu, Daniel Gallagher, Kian Goh, Zachary Lamb, Kara Reeve, and
Hannah Teicher. "Equity impacts of urban land use planning for climate adaptation: Critical perspectives from the
global north and south." Journal of Planning Education and Research 36, no. 3 (2016): 333-348.
6 Nelson, Gerald C., Hugo Valin, Ronald D. Sands, Petr Havlík, Helal Ahammad, Delphine Deryng, Joshua
Elliott et al. "Climate change effects on agriculture: Economic responses to biophysical shocks." Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 9 (2014): 3274-3279.

4ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
effects of land use changes has affected the total yield on the land and affects the fertility of it.
Therefore, both of these effects are harmful if not managed or controlled properly. Besides these
one of the primary benefits of controlled and sustainable use of forest and agricultural fields, the
formation of ozone gases are also compromised due to the altered or improper use of agricultural
and forest lands7. However, due to excess evapotranspiration and greenhouse emission, the traces
of ozone are hampered and hence, increases the risk of global warming and depletion of ozone
gases from the upper atmosphere.
The effect of climate change on the land usage
The previous section mentioned about the way land usage and altered land coverage
affects the climate, however, there are incidents, in which altered climate affects the land usage
of a particular location. As per Lipper et al. (2014), climate is an important aspect that helps to
determine the type of grains and timber would grow in a particular region. However, climate
change and its after effects such as flood, droughts and frosts affects the harvest pattern of any
field drastically, both locally and regionally8. Therefore, both climate and improper land use has
altered effects upon each other and has affected the political, social, economic and fundamental
aspects of the societies.
Principles of sustainability:
7 Lipper, Leslie, Philip Thornton, Bruce M. Campbell, Tobias Baedeker, Ademola Braimoh, Martin
Bwalya, Patrick Caron et al. "Climate-smart agriculture for food security." Nature climate change 4, no. 12 (2014):
1068. 8 Lipper, Leslie, Philip Thornton, Bruce M. Campbell, Tobias Baedeker, Ademola Braimoh, Martin
Bwalya, Patrick Caron et al. "Climate-smart agriculture for food security." Nature climate change 4, no. 12 (2014):
1068.

5ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
According to the World Commission on Environment and Development (2019)9,
sustainable development can be defined as the process of continuous development without
compromising on the resources for the future generation. It should further be noted in this regard
that the Agenda 21 that was adapted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development focused on the creation of an economically and environmentally sustainable
environment.
It is integral to note in this regard that the Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development defined sustainable development by emphasising on 18 important principles of
sustainability10. The first principle stated that globally people are entitle to lead a healthy life that
is in harmony with nature. The second principle states that continuous development must not
undermine the developmental or the environmental needs of the present or the future generation.
Further, it is also mentioned that nations possess the sovereign right to exploit the resources
present within their land but appropriate measures must be undertaken to ensure that
environmental damage does not spread across the border. The next principle states that nations
globally must develop international laws and policies in order to offer compensation for the
environmental damage that could have possibly resulted due to development activities across the
borders. Also, nations must make use of a precautionary approach to adapt measures to protect
the environment. In adverse situations when there is threats of serious or irreversible damage,
advanced scientific methods must be undertaken to mitigate the environmental damage that has
been caused. In addition to this, it should also be noted that in order to acquire environmental
9 Sustainabledevelopment.un.org. 2019. "WCED .:. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform".
Sustainabledevelopment.Un.Org. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/milestones/wced.
10 Ramaswami, Anu, Armistead G. Russell, Patricia J. Culligan, Karnamadakala Rahul Sharma, and Emani
Kumar. "Meta-principles for developing smart, sustainable, and healthy cities." Science 352, no. 6288 (2016): 940-
943.

6ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
sustainability it is important to adapt measures for environmental protection as the environment
forms an integral part of the development process. Also, one of the primary requisite to acquire
sustainability is to eradicate the difference between the different economic categories of people
and ensure that every individual irrespective of their economic background lead an improved
standard of life. Also, globally nations must come together to conserve, protect and restore the
quality of the nature’s ecosystem. It should also be stated in this regard that nations must adapt
measures to reduce and eliminate the non-sustainable trend of production or consumption of
resources so as to facilitate continuous and sustainable development.
The principle further stress upon the mitigation of environmental issues by ensuring
active participation from community members so as to integrate awareness about the seriousness
of the issues and acquire positive outcome. In addition to this, it is also recommended that
nations must enforce appropriate environment protection laws and policies so as to mitigate
problems related to drastic environmental changes and pollution issues11. Also, globally nations
must cooperate in order to foster an open international economic system so as to acquire
sustainable development internationally. The principles of sustainability also suggests that the
polluter must bear the burden and the cost of pollution. Also, Nations must operative
collaboratively and appropriately warn one another about potential natural disaster that could
elicit harmful trans-boundary effects. Research studies mention that sustainable development
principles focus on improved scientific understanding of the problems and that nations must
share knowledge and invent innovative technology in order to acquire sustainability12. The
11 Epstein, Marc J. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate
social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge, 2018.
12 Seidel, Stefan, Leona Chandra Kruse, Nadine Székely, Michael Gau, and Daniel Stieger. "Design
principles for sensemaking support systems in environmental sustainability transformations." European Journal of
Information Systems 27, no. 2 (2018): 221-247.

7ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
principles also stress upon the participation of women, youth and the indigenous to acquire
sustainable development and at the same time expects nations to identify and acknowledge the
diversity existing in different cultures.
The principles of sustainability identify warfare as a destructive factor that deteriorates
sustainable development and expects nations to cooperate with one another in order to acquire
sustainable development. Further, the components of peace, development and environmental
protection are considered indivisible and are regarded as integral elements that contribute to
sustainable development.
In this regard it is integral to note that environmental sustainability refers to the
maintenance of the quality and quantity of the available natural resources. The resources are
integral to offer substantial life support, thus appropriate measures must be undertaken to ensure
that the quality of the resources are maintained and the availability of the resources are not
depleted due to the intensive human activities. The principles of environmental sustainability
critically focus on the areas of conservation of the biodiversity hotspots as well as adaption of
measures to increase forest cover. In addition to this, the principles of environmental
sustainability also focuses on watershed protection and implementation of a holistic approach to
save the resources13.
In addition to this, other important factors that form the principles of environment
sustainability includes reduction of environmental threats, environmental pollution and the use of
eco-friendly cleaner and greener technology to resolve environmental issues such as climate
change, loss of biodiversity and pollution hampering the quality of environment.
13 Emas, Rachel. "The concept of sustainable development: definition and defining principles." Brief for
GSDR 2015 (2015).

8ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
Sustainable Land Use:
Research studies mention that land use directly affects the quality of environment and is
responsible for the drastic change of climate. In order to mitigate the problem there is a need to
adapt innovative measures so as to preserve the quality of the environment. A remedial solution
to the problem has been propounded by Elinor Ostrom who has specifically focused on the
mentioned 8 principles to preserve the quality of the environment and at the same time ensure
effective land use. The principles include inclusion of clearly defined boundaries, alignment with
the local needs and condition, continuous monitoring of the resource use, integration of efficient
conflict resolution process, appropriate recognition of rights, collective decision making and
integration of the polycentric structure of governance within accountable institutions.
The primary assumption of Ostrum centres on the fact that individuals stringently abide
by the rules and regulations specific to local context. Collaborative effort is expected to enhance
the quality of consequences and yield successful outcome. For instance, considering the massive
deforestation of rainforests, it can be said that undertaking local effort to switch to environment
friendly alternatives can help to combat the problem of depletion of forests14. However, the
primary challenge with the implementation of the sustainable alternative can be explained as lack
of an appropriate opportunity to implement a sustainable initiative. Research studies further state
that the integration of intensive cropping systems can help to acquire high productivity within the
humid tropical areas which comprise of resource rich lands15. Intensive cropping help generate
maximal productivity but not at the cost of compromising with the quality of the environment. In
14 Szeto, W. Y., Yu Jiang, D. Z. W. Wang, and A. Sumalee. "A sustainable road network design problem
with land use transportation interaction over time." Networks and Spatial Economics 15, no. 3 (2015): 791-822.
15 Deng, Xiangzheng, Zhihui Li, and John Gibson. "A review on trade-off analysis of ecosystem services
for sustainable land-use management." Journal of Geographical Sciences26, no. 7 (2016): 953-968.

9ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
addition to this, research studies also suggest that intensive cropping methods help to foster
positive ecological relationships and biological processes16. It is integral to note in this regard
that forest boundary stabilization can also be achieved with the incorporation of the intensive
cropping method. Further, the use of shifting cultivation, low input cropping, and use of
Agropastoral farms can help to acquire maximum productivity and at the same time ensure
prevention of the quality of the environment. In addition to this, implementation of sustainable
methods such as agroforestry systems and techniques such as cattle ranching can help to acquire
efficient outcome. In addition to this, agroforestry technique helps to acquire improved
ecological harmony between different ecosystems which helps to acquire improved outcome.
Also, alley cropping systems helps to acquire higher productivity in the form of multiple
products such as fodder and grains as well as building materials which subsequently help to
improve the quality of the soil structure17. Therefore, with the use of the discussed technological
innovation, improved productivity can be acquired and at the same time the quality of the
environment would also not be affected.
Conclusion
All these previous sections mentions about the adverse effects of improper usage of agricultural
lands, especially its effect of human growth and development by changing the ecosystem. These
sections also mentioned about the principles of sustainable changes and principles depending
upon which the social structure has been developed. However, while leading life and surviving in
16 Thangasamy, A., M. V. S. Naidu, N. Ramavatharam, and C. Raghava Reddy. "Characterisation,
classification and evaluation of soil resources in Sivagiri micro-watershed of Chittoor District in Andhra Pradesh for
sustainable land use planning." (2015).
17 Zitti, Marco, Carlotta Ferrara, Luigi Perini, Margherita Carlucci, and Luca Salvati. "Long-term urban
growth and land use efficiency in Southern Europe: Implications for sustainable land management." Sustainability 7,
no. 3 (2015): 3359-3385.

10ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
the world, these sustainability principles becomes difficult to implement. The population of earth
in increasing drastically and the available resources are not appropriate to meet the need of
populations. Majority of the developed countries has already reached their saturation level of
transforming forest and grasslands into agriculture fields and more depletion of these could
hamper their natural ecosystem as well. Developing nations are also depleting their forests and
constructing organisations factories and agricultural fields so that they could survive and thrive
in this fast paced lifestyle. Hence, maintaining sustainability principles could affect the present
situation of these countries as they are unable to meet their present population, hence, restoring
resources for the future generation would violate the fundamental right of the present population.
These are the moral and practical challenges that are faced while implementing sustainability
principles in land usage.

11ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
Bibliography
Ali, Akhter, and Olaf Erenstein. "Assessing farmer use of climate change adaptation practices
and impacts on food security and poverty in Pakistan." Climate Risk Management16 (2017):
183-194.
Anguelovski, Isabelle, Linda Shi, Eric Chu, Daniel Gallagher, Kian Goh, Zachary Lamb, Kara
Reeve, and Hannah Teicher. "Equity impacts of urban land use planning for climate adaptation:
Critical perspectives from the global north and south." Journal of Planning Education and
Research 36, no. 3 (2016): 333-348.
Anguelovski, Isabelle, Linda Shi, Eric Chu, Daniel Gallagher, Kian Goh, Zachary Lamb, Kara
Reeve, and Hannah Teicher. "Equity impacts of urban land use planning for climate adaptation:
Critical perspectives from the global north and south." Journal of Planning Education and
Research 36, no. 3 (2016): 333-348.
Deng, Xiangzheng, Zhihui Li, and John Gibson. "A review on trade-off analysis of ecosystem
services for sustainable land-use management." Journal of Geographical Sciences26, no. 7
(2016): 953-968.
Emas, Rachel. "The concept of sustainable development: definition and defining
principles." Brief for GSDR 2015 (2015).
Epstein, Marc J. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring
corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge, 2018.

12ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research. 2019. "How Agriculture And
Forestry Change Climate, And How We Deal With It". Luc4c.Eu.
http://luc4c.eu/public_files/uploads/2015-05/LUC4C%20booklet_web_How%20agriculture
%20and%20forestry%20change%20climate.pdf.
Food and Agricultural Organisation of United Nations. 2019. "STATE OF THE WORLD’S
FORESTS". Fao.Org. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5588e.pdf.
Levy, Barry S., and Jonathan A. Patz. "Climate change, human rights, and social justice." Annals
of global health 81, no. 3 (2015): 310-322.
Lipper, Leslie, Philip Thornton, Bruce M. Campbell, Tobias Baedeker, Ademola Braimoh,
Martin Bwalya, Patrick Caron et al. "Climate-smart agriculture for food security." Nature
climate change 4, no. 12 (2014): 1068.
Nelson, Gerald C., Hugo Valin, Ronald D. Sands, Petr Havlík, Helal Ahammad, Delphine
Deryng, Joshua Elliott et al. "Climate change effects on agriculture: Economic responses to
biophysical shocks." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 9 (2014): 3274-
3279.
Ramaswami, Anu, Armistead G. Russell, Patricia J. Culligan, Karnamadakala Rahul Sharma,
and Emani Kumar. "Meta-principles for developing smart, sustainable, and healthy
cities." Science 352, no. 6288 (2016): 940-943.
Seidel, Stefan, Leona Chandra Kruse, Nadine Székely, Michael Gau, and Daniel Stieger.
"Design principles for sensemaking support systems in environmental sustainability
transformations." European Journal of Information Systems 27, no. 2 (2018): 221-247.

13ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
Sirami, Clélia, Paul Caplat, Simon Popy, Alex Clamens, Raphaël Arlettaz, Frédéric Jiguet, Lluís
Brotons, and Jean‐Louis Martin. "Impacts of global change on species distributions: obstacles
and solutions to integrate climate and land use." Global Ecology and Biogeography 26, no. 4
(2017): 385-394.
Sustainabledevelopment.un.org. 2019. "WCED .:. Sustainable Development Knowledge
Platform". Sustainabledevelopment.Un.Org.
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/milestones/wced.
Szeto, W. Y., Yu Jiang, D. Z. W. Wang, and A. Sumalee. "A sustainable road network design
problem with land use transportation interaction over time." Networks and Spatial Economics 15,
no. 3 (2015): 791-822.
Thangasamy, A., M. V. S. Naidu, N. Ramavatharam, and C. Raghava Reddy. "Characterisation,
classification and evaluation of soil resources in Sivagiri micro-watershed of Chittoor District in
Andhra Pradesh for sustainable land use planning." (2015).
Zitti, Marco, Carlotta Ferrara, Luigi Perini, Margherita Carlucci, and Luca Salvati. "Long-term
urban growth and land use efficiency in Southern Europe: Implications for sustainable land
management." Sustainability 7, no. 3 (2015): 3359-3385.