Organised by:

Wessex Institute of Technology, UK
Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia

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Objectives
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The success of the two previous International Conferences on Management of Natural Resources, Sustainable Development and Ecological Hazards (Ravage of the Planet), held in Bariloche, Argentina (2006) and in Gordons Bay, South Africa (2009), has led the organisers to reconvene the meeting in Malaysia.

The conference has always been well attended by a substantial group of scientists from all over the world, which underlines the concern of the international community regarding the state of the planet. The basic premise of the meeting is the need to determine urgent solutions before we reach a point of irreversibility.

Our current civilisation has fallen into a self-destructive process by which natural resources are consumed at an increasing rate. This process has now spread across the planet in search of further sources of energy and materials. The aggressiveness of this quest is such that the future of our planet is in the balance. The process is compounded by the pernicious effects of the resulting pollution.

The conference will discuss the objective of reaching sustainability in the framework of all different disciplines in order to arrive at optimal solutions. Hence this meeting is essentially transdisciplinary in order to find appropriate sustainable solutions, i.e. those involving collaboration across a wide range of disciplines. Like the first two, the aim of this conference is to take stock of our situation and try to facilitate constructive principles and policies for a way forward.

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Conference Topics
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The re-encounter
* Science and humanities
* Arts and sciences
* Science and ethics

Political and social issues
* Social and sociological issues
* Environmental legislation and policy
* International agreements
* Crimes against nature

Planning and development
* City planning
* Regional planning and economics
* Spatial planning
* Sustainable transport
* Resource management
* Tourism and the environment
* Waste management

Safety
* Risk analysis, assessment and management
* Information and communication issues
* Transportation problems
* Emergency response
* Disaster prevention, control management and protection
* Protection of cultural and historical heritage

Health risks
* Water, air and soil problems
* Radiation fields
* Food contamination
* Housing and health
* Occupational health
* Social and economic issues
* Exposure and epidemiology

New technologies
* The impact of new technologies
* Energy-efficient technologies
* Eco-architecture

Learning from nature
* Design in nature
* Nature and architecture
* Solutions from nature
* Evolutionary studies

Ecology
* Natural resources management
* Biodiversity
* Sustainability indicators
* Environmental risk
* Recovery of damaged areas
* Ecosystems modelling
* Agricultural and forestation issues
* Landscape

Energy
* Renewable energy
* Nuclear energy
* Hydrocarbons
* Production of new energy
* Economics and political issues
* Energy conservation

Water Resources
* Water management and planning
* River basin and watershed management
* Sustainable water use
* Arid region problems
* Pollution monitoring and control

Air
* Air quality management
* Global and regional studies
* Climatology

Soil
* Agricultural issues
* Contamination
* Underground resources
* Remediation

For more information contact Beverley Copland, Conference Secretariat, at bcopland@wessex.ac.uk