Environmental sustainability at the hierarchical level of lake systems

Paulo Pedrosa, Maria Eugenia Ferreira Totti and Carlos Eduardo Rezende

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2004, vol. 7, issue 2, 185-199

Abstract: This paper argues that some determinants of environmental sustainability may be illuminated by examining temporal and geographic variation across lake systems. Typically, lakes respond to both transient and more permanent environmental changes, natural or anthropogenic, and the results of these variations are usually recorded by a diverse set of in-lake indicators. Cause and effect relationships from such complex environmental interactions can be evaluated from physical, chemical and biological data related to lake structure and function. Given the wide distribution of such systems over the planet, we emphasise their potential application not only to local/regional, but also to global scales. Objectively, a local case study is described (Cima Lake, Brazil), and we highlight the potential contribution of lake ecosystems as a repository of extensive environmental information. The method has the potential to be useful to analyse environmental sustainability and to improve the knowledge base for land-use policies.

Keywords: biogeochemical indicators; environmental sustainability; lake systems; limnology; sustainability; Brazil; sustainable development; land use policies; lakes. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=5370 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijsusd:v:7:y:2004:i:2:p:185-199

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Sustainable Development from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().