Sustainable development in the context of climate change: Achievements, challenges and prospects
I. Context
Under the effect of global climate change, sustainable development is nowadays an international concern, particularly in dry lands. According to the 2020 global dry lands distribution map (FAO), about two billion people live in dry lands, 90% of them in developing countries. In addition, dry lands support a wide livestock variety and plant species essential to human food security. Indeed, despite physical constraints, agriculture has been recognized as an essential activity in these dry lands. It contributes to ensuring the supply of agricultural and food products, wealth creation, and income sources for a significant part of the rural populations.
Public development policies have played an important role in promoting sustainable development globally, particularly through the implementation of numerous integrated rural development programs and projects. The effectiveness of these programs deserves to be analyzed and assessed. Nowadays, many global phenomena have a direct impact on household livelihoods, in particular those in remote rural areas. Climate change, technological innovations (including Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), and the globalization of economy constitute major challenges for maintaining the agricultural resilience in many regions of the world. They can significantly modify the productivity of the agricultural sector and permanently affect the natural resources (water, soil, vegetation, etc.), which are the basis of agricultural production and its main chain values.
Periods of prolonged drought are becoming more common, posing new challenges to the traditional agricultural production and to the process of economic and social development. Drought increases pressure on natural resources and affects the low agricultural potential. Such pressures highlight the fragility of the global economic and social system.
The aims of the special issue are as follows:
(1) Focusing on the achievements of social science research on issues related to economic and social development, particularly in drylands, which are experiencing a new situation characterized by the globalization of economies, the acceleration of technological innovations, climate change, and the degradation of natural resources.
(2) Formulating orientations and recommendations for decision-makers and development actors to enable those establishing strategies and public policies allowing the implementation of sustainable development.
(3) Promoting networking between social science research in agricultural and rural development from a sustainability perspective.
II. Topics
The topics of the special issue include but are not limited to the following:
(1) Impacts and challenges of global climate change and regional ecological responses;
(2) Institutional economy and governance;
(3) Value chain and resilient agriculture;
(4) Public policies and development approaches;
(5) Agricultural development theories, methodology, and models;
(6) Resources exploitation and utilization.
III. About the Regional Sustainability
Regional Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access journal publishing high-quality articles in multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary subjects relating to sustainability. The journal advances our understanding of the sustainability dimensions of environmental protection, economic development and social development from local to global scales. It publishes theoretical and experimental research papers on resources exploitation and utilization, urbanization and regional sustainable development, urbanization and informatization, human-land relationship and regional differential, population migration and society transformation, and spatial layout and optimization of human activity.
Launched in October 2020, the journal has been selected/indexed by the Scopus, DOAJ, GEOBASE, EBSCO, CNKI, etc.
VI. Guest Editor Team
Prof. Mohamed Jaouad, Arid Zone Research Institute (Institut des Régions Arides) (IRA), Médenine, Tunisia (E-mail: mjaouad63@gmail.com )
Prof. Mongi Sghaier, Arid Zone Research Institute (Institut des Régions Arides) (IRA), Médenine, Tunisia (E-mail: sghaiermon@gmail.com )
Aymen Frija, ICARDA, Tunis, Tunisia (E-mail: frijaaymen@yahoo.fr)
Prof. Ouessar Mohamed, Arid Zone Research Institute (Institut des Régions Arides) (IRA), Médenine, Tunisia (E-mail: ouessar@yahoo.com)
Dr. Nabil Bachagha, School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, China (E-mail: bachaghanabil@csu.edu.cn)
Prof. Rui Zhao, Southwest Jiaotong University, China (E-mail: ruizhao@swjtu.edu.cn)
Prof. Xiaobing Zhou, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (E-mail: zhouxb@ms.xjb.ac.cn)
V. Submission of Full Papers
The Guest Editor Team invites both original research papers and review papers that fit within the scope outlined in this document. The focus of the submitted papers should lie on sustainable development, but comparative studies and methodological papers are also welcome as long as they are relevant for the topics of this special issue.
Please carefully read and follow the instructions for authors, which you may find online at:
Before submitting paper, please create a user account and then submit all relevant files online at:
Manuscripts can be submitted during the following time frame:
OPENING: December 1, 2022
DEADLINE: May 31, 2023
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