Converting UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to Decision-Making Objectives and Implementation Options at the River Basin Scale

Sustainability

Ximing Cai¹  Xiangzheng Deng²  Feng Wu²  Zhongyuan Li²  Xin Li³  Yingchun Ge⁴  Wenfei Luan⁴ 

[1] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801-3633, USA;Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100101, China;Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing of Gansu Province, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science, 320 West Donggang Road, Lanzhou 730000, China;

关键词: sustainable development goals (SDGs);    river basin;    decision-making;    scenario analysis;    integrated river basin management;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su10041056

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations cover all living things on Earth. However, downscaling the SDGs to regional scales for implementation is challenging. In the paper, we convert the general SDGs into tangible and actionable goals, targets and indicators for use in integrated river basin management (IRBM). Further, we propose a decision support framework that can be used to support IRBM implementation based on the SDGs. The framework offers a context for open thinking in which IRBM decision makers envision socioeconomic and ecosystem goals and the development tracks of a river basin and explore the various paths that can be followed to reach the goals. In particular, indicators are proposed for use in IRBM, which consider five aspects of river basins, specifically water, ecosystems, socioeconomic development, ability and data. To enable decision-making that promotes progress toward the goals, five scenarios, 17 sub-scenarios and 29 key parameters are provided that form a diverse set of scenarios corresponding to specific decision schemes. Moreover, these scenarios, sub-scenarios and parameters consider future uncertainties and both engineering and non-engineering measures that can be taken to achieve the co-development of human and natural factors in a basin.

【 授权许可】

Unknown