Sustainability

1Introduction to Sustainability and Sustainable Development

Prangya R. Rout¹, Akshaya K. Verma², Puspendu Bhunia³, Rao Y. Surampalli⁴, Tian C. Zhang⁴, R.D. Tyagi⁵, S.K. Brar⁵, and M.K. Goyal⁶

¹Department of Environmental Engineering, Inha University, Incheon, Republic of Korea

²Department of Civil Engineering, Siksha 'O' Anusandhan, Bhubaneswar, India

³School of Infrastructure, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneswar, India

⁴Civil Engineering Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Omaha, USA

⁵INRS, Université du Québec, Québec, Canada

⁶Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Indore, India

1.1 Background and Definition

In the present-day world, which is more and more global, people have taken note of global issues. Sustainability is one of these vital issues and has progressively gained prominence in practice and in educational deliberations around the world over the past several decades (Rodrigo et al. 2017). Our contemporary practices, including the increased exploitation of non-renewable energy sources and unrestrained waste generation in all possible ways, have appeared as huge risks to the sustainable development concept (Adenike 2018). Although the idea of sustainable development has been accepted universally, it has hardly progressed from a concept to practical application since its inception (Yan et al. 2018). It is often said that “development” as intended today has moved, not necessarily progressed, through various forms and fashions ...