Sustainable Activities
Research Focus Area:
Sustainable Activites
The increased flow of goods and services across the world and expansion of the built-environment that comes with urbanization and population growth present further challenges to meeting the United Nations’ Millennium Development goal of ensuring environmental sustainability. Sustainable development, as defined by in the 1987 Brundtland Report for the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Many problems from the global economy impact the health and sustainability of communities. Income disparities, rising poverty, gender inequities, and unemployment leave individual citizens unable to tend to natural resources or promote innate cultural and artistic practices; to the contrary, poorer people may resort to exploiting natural resources in order to make a living in the present, at the expense of future income streams. Others may abandon local practices for commercial reasons. Similarly, these negative impacts of the global economy leave individuals with few means to care for their own health, in terms of health care, food security, and other measures to protect health. Poverty even leads to risky health behaviors that increase the spread of disease. At the macro level, insurmountable external debt, lack of investment capital, and the resulting inadequate infrastructures imply that some countries are unable to make the investments necessary to protect their human or natural resources. Pressure to earn foreign exchange may lead to poor land-use decisions, including over-built 
environments, use of fragile lands for farming, or deforestation. In this scenario, governments also lack funds to provide adequate health care systems, education systems (which, in turn, have adverse economic and health consequences) and transportation systems.
The Patel Center tries to reverse these outcomes through the promotion of sustainable activities – that is, finding economic activities that do not compromise the natural environment nor local health conditions. Patel projects also carry an educational component that ensures local buy-in and ability to operate and maintain the project without external intervention.
EXAMPLES OF CURRENT PROJECTS
Sustainable Use of Mangroves: environmentally friendly ways for the poor to derive income from mangroves, including tourism and harvesting plants
Researcher: Mark Rains, Geology, USF
Goal: to provide poor populations in La Manzanilla, Mexico, an incentive to protect natural resources
Low Impact Tourism: develop models for operational decision-making in areas where tourism negatively impacts natural resources, especially water
Researcher: Maya Trotz, Civil & Environmental Engineering, USF
Goal: provide policymakers and planners in Caribbean countries with the tools to ensure that tourism is environmentally friendly
Sustainable Industries: assess prospects for sustainable rice production and sustainable carp industry in Miches, Dominican Republic
Researcher: Tom Crisman, Patel Center
Goal: develop sustainable enterprises that provide jobs to low-income households in Miches, Dominican Republic
Indigenous Technologies for Clean Water: use of cactus mucilage to clean drinking water in Mexico
Researcher: Norma Alcantar, Chemical Engineering, USF
Goal: to provide natural and cheaply available, culturally appropriate method of cleaning drinking water, while developing a locally sustainable market for water filters
Innovative Wastewater Treatment Technology: develop membrane-bioreactor to clean wastewater, in an manner that is cost effective, can be made with materials locally available, and can be operated and maintained by local populations.
Researcher: Daniel Yeh, Civil and Environmental Engineering, USF
Goal: to provide cost-effective method of cleaning wastewater in developing countries
People: USF Researchers