Sustainability in Food and Water

The need to put into perspective the ever-mounting body of new information, beyond the frames of disciplines, on environmental security of food and water issues in Asia provided the impetus for the development of this book. It combines presentations from symposia on food and water sustainability held recently in Macau, China. This book represents the latest research findings in all the major aspects of food and water security issues in Asia. The first chapter portrays the strategies for water resources management in Asian countries. In this connection, the environmental challenges for sustainable development were discussed. Model application on spatial allocation of water resources viewed the tradeoff between economic goal and ecological goal. The hydrological changes related to the socio-economic development in china were also included in this chapter. The second chapter deals with sustainable water uses in domestic purposes for both urban and rural areas. The potential use of reclaimed wastewater was described in the context of different cities as reference for the urban water management in whole Asia. The traditional drinking water uses in rural communities and associated challenges towards sustainability were also discussed in this regard. The third chapter focuses on the security issues in aquatic products. The long-term strategy for the fisheries development in China was represented as lessons for other communities in Asia. The environmental impacts of aquaculture and the control measures were also included in this discussion. Chapter four of this book represents the sustainability aspect in food grains. The delicate balance between water resources and food grain production was addressed. Sustainable strategies for water use and food production were described in the context of several Asian countries. The impact of biofuel production on food security issues was raised in this discussion. Some other socio-economic factors related to this issue were also included in this chapter. The overarching importances of the food and water sustainability issues in climate changes have been shown in chapter five. Impacts of global warming on water resources and food production in Asian countries were described with examples and simulation. Mitigation measures were also sited with regional references in Korea, Thailand and other parts of Asia. Strategies aiming the security issues in food and water were addressed in chapter six. Scenarios of environmental managements in Asian countries related to allocation of water resources, water quality, remediation of hazardous wastes, and soil clean up were the major topics in this context. The organizational strategies were also assessed in this discussion.

Prof. Akimasa SumiProfessor and Executive Director of the Transdisciplinary Initiative for Global Sustainability (TIGS) at the University of Tokyo (UT). He started his career serving for the Japan Meteorological Agency and later joined UT, as a professor. His research interest is focused on numerical modeling of weather and climate, especially in the context of global climate change. Recently he led a Japanese team to build the highest-resolution climate model for use with Japan’s Earth Simulator, one of the world’s best supercomputers. The successful outcome deepened the understanding of climate change, and significantly contributed to the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He was also a Lead Author of chapter 8 of AR4, Working Group I of IPCC. From 1994-2004, he served as Director of the Center for Climate System Research at UT. As the research need on global warming has changed with the changing public awareness, he expanded his research to cover global sustainability, a key concept in addressing climate change. Since 2005, he has been working as the Executive Director in TIGS and promoted researches on various aspects of global sustainability. Currently he also serves as a Member of the Central Environment Council of the Japanese Government.Dr. Kensuke FukushiDr. Kensuke FUKUSHI is an associate professor at Transdisciplinary Initiative for Global Sustainability (TIGS), Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S), University of Tokyo. After receiving his PhD from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Utah in 1996, he worked as an assistant professor at Department of Civil Engineering, Tohoku University from 1996 until 1999, as an assistant professor at School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand from 1999 until 2001, and as an associate professor at the same school until 2001. Then he moved to an associate professor at Environmental Science Center, University of Tokyo in 2001, and arrived at the current position in 2006. He is an expert on environmental engineering, and especially familiar with pollution and remediation of heavy metals in water and soil, and risk assessment. He published his work in various international journals related to water research, environmental engineering, and microbiology.Dr. Ryo Honda Dr. Ryo HONDA is a project assistant professor at Transdisciplinary Initiative for Global Sustainability (TIGS), Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S), University of Tokyo. He has got his PhD at Department of Urban Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo in 2005. He is an expert in biological wastewater treatment and water resource management. He has good experiences in the field studies in developing world in Asia. He published his work in international journals on environmental engineering and applied microbiology.Dr. Khondoker Mahbub Hassan Dr. Khondoker Mahbub HASSAN is a project researcher at Transdisciplinary Initiative for Global Sustainability (TIGS), Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S), University of Tokyo. He got his PhD from the Department of Urban Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo in 2009. In his home country, he holds a position of Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh. He is an expert in water treatment and water resource management. He was involved with many water related projects for field implementation in the developing countries in Asia. He published his work in various international journals related to water research, and environmental engineering.