AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF NUEVO LEÓN

FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Unit 2

Chapter 4
1. Where and when did the Agenda 21 (A21) start to take shape?
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro
on June 14, 1992.
2. When and who created the concept of 'sustainable development'?
During the 1970s at the UN.
3. What does A21 entail?
A series of matters that require chronologically organized attention, to promote
sustainably at the global, national, and local levels.
4. What were the objectives of A21?
Complementary, the goal of the Millennium Development (2000) and the Johannesburg summit
South Africa (2002)

Chapter 5
5. What is the Millennium Declaration (MD), when and where did it take place?
A confirmation of commitment that the signing nations have undertaken to continue
considering the postulates of Agenda 21. It was approved between September 6 and 8 of
2000
6. What were the objectives of the DM?
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
Achieve universal primary education.
Promote gender equality and women's autonomy.
Reduce infant mortality.
Improve maternal health.
Combat HIV, malaria, and other diseases.
Ensure the sustainability of the environment.
Foster a global partnership for development.

7. What are the values and principles of the DM?

Chapter 6
8. What are the main areas of sustainability?

9. Define sustainable development

It is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability to
that future generations can meet their own needs.
10. Define sustainable development
The process assessable by criteria and indicators of an environmental, economic, and social nature
which tends to improve the quality of life and the productivity of individuals, which is based on
appropriate measures for preserving ecological balance, protecting the environment and
utilization of natural resources, in a way that does not compromise the satisfaction of
the future needs.

Dr. Carlos Joel Ábrego Góngora

 AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF NUEVO LEÓN
FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Unit 2
11. What are the pillars of sustainable development (SD)?
Economic dimension.
Human dimension.
Environmental dimension
Technology.
Environmental Dimension.
12. What are the three important points of the economic dimension regarding the wealth of the
countries?
Energy consumption.
Natural resources.
Lifestyles.
13. Where is the human dimension heading?
It aims towards the satisfaction of basic needs for health, education, clean environment and
equal participation of women and minority groups.
14. Where should sustainable development be directed in the environmental dimension?
All countries improve their environmental protection policies.
Industrialized countries are more concerned about preventing pollution of resources and about
efficient use of these.
Developing countries are concerned about the basic conservation of their renewable resources.
like the soil, water, and forests, which are the basis of their economies.
15. What are the technological strategies to achieve sustainable development?
Industrialized countries seek to replace their technologies with more efficient ones.
The rapidly industrializing countries seize the opportunity to develop with
more efficient and cleaner technologies.
The economies of developing countries that still mainly rely on agriculture,
develop appropriate small-scale technologies to increase productivity
agricultural as well as for manufacturing.
What does sustainability mean?
It is development based not only on economic criteria, but also on social and environmental ones.
17. What is a criterion? And note three examples.
18. It is understood as the set of all those topics or names of topics that allow
organize the information, and which are described by indicators. THE WATER QUALITY-THE
LEVEL OF WATER AVAILABILITY - THE LEVEL OF PUBLIC SAFETY.
19. What are environmental indicators?
It is a fact, an expression, a situation, or a sign that clearly makes a condition perceptible.
trend or phenomenon that is not easily detectable immediately and that allows
understand the state of sustainability.
20. Note four examples of actions that were taken in the past for conservation.
resources.
Lázaro Cárdenas created 40 national parks.
President Benito Juárez enacted the first forest law in independent Mexico.
King Charles I ordered the encomenderos to plant trees for the benefit of the community.
King Charles II ordered that for every tree that was cut down, three should be planted.

Dr. Carlos Joel Ábrego Góngora

 AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF NUEVO LEÓN
FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Unit 2
21. Where is most of the environmental policy in Mexico concentrated?

In the General Law of Ecological Balance and the Protection of the Environment.
22. What is the objective of environmental indicators according to the OECD?
It aims to help countries improve their environmental performance, with the purpose of
achieve sustainable development.
What are the basic parameters for measuring environmental performance and what does each consist of
one of them?
Pressure. Anthropogenic activities that impact fear.
State. Condition in which the medium is found, regarding its degree of preservation or
environmental deterioration.

Response. The measures taken by society as a whole to address the

environmental issues.
23. Anotar tres ejemplos de bienes ambientales comunes
Air, water, and soil
24. What are environmental goods?
Tangible benefits of nature (wood, water, soil, plants, medicinal).
25. What are environmental services?
They are intangible benefits whose use - when there is any - is indirect (carbon capture,
climate regulation, scenic beauty, erosion control, and many others
26. What is the definition of environmental services according to the General Wildlife Law?
The social interest benefits derived from wildlife and its habitat, such as the
climate regulation, the conservation of hydrological skies, nitrogen fixation, the
soil formation, carbon capture, erosion control, plant pollination,
biological control of pests or the degradation of organic waste.
27. What is an ecosystem?
They are units that include all the organisms of a specific area in their
interaction with the physical environment, to generate structures and functions.
28. What are the two main classes of ecosystems?
Natural ecosystems: They are the result of millions of years of biological evolution processes and
ecological factors that have led to complex webs of life.
Anthropogenic ecosystems: they are those that have been constructed by human intervention, or
those of biological nature that have been significantly altered.
29. What are natural ecosystems and 2 examples?
Natural ecosystems: They are the result of millions of years of biological evolution processes and
ecological processes that have led to complex life networks. (tropical forests and forests
tempered)
30. What are anthropogenic ecosystems and provide 2 examples?
Anthropogenic ecosystems: they are those that have been built by human intervention, or else,
those of biological nature that have been significantly altered. (A plantation
forest and a school garden
31. How are ecological functions classified?
Regularization functions
Habitat functions.

Dr. Carlos Joel Ábrego Góngora

 AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF NUEVO LEÓN
FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Unit 2
Production functions.
Information functions.
32. What are the regulatory functions?
These are those related to the natural capacity of ecosystems to adjust or
maintain the essential biological processes in the maintenance of life.
33. What are the habitat functions?
They provide refuge for plants, animals, and microorganisms, as well as spaces for
reproduction or other phases of its biological cycle.
34. What are the production functions?
It mainly refers to the biomass produced by living organisms and includes processes of
nutrient fixation, conversion of solar energy to chemical and transformation of energy
in matter.
35. What are the information functions?
It relates to the mechanisms of inheritance; those that result from natural evolution with the
mechanisms of species and constitutes the genetic reservoir of life.
36. De 4 ejemplos de servicios ambientales.
The provision of water in sufficient quality and quantity.
The generation of oxygen.
The beauty of the landscape and recreation.
The regulation of the climate and the cushioning of the impact of phenomena.
37. What are UMAS and what are they used for?
Sustainable environmental management unit.

Dr. Carlos Joel Ábrego Góngora

 AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF NUEVO LEÓN
FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Unit 2
How does the Clean Development Mechanism work?
It allows developed countries to buy cheap carbon credits from developing countries.
development, with a lower cost, than if they only took action to reduce emissions
in their own territory.
38. What are carbon certificates or bonds?
Reduction of emissions or carbon capture are the result of a long process.
39. How are economic values subdivided?
In terms of use values, which can be direct or indirect use.
In optional values.
Values of existence.
40. What is the value of direct use?
It depends on the availability and the supply (producer), and on the demand (consumer);
including values of timber and non-timber forest production, recreation, and tourism.
41. What is the value of indirect use?
To the value of the ecological functions performed by ecosystems (soil protection,
basin regulation, water infiltration, etc.); the assessment is done independently of
based on the replacement cost of substitute goods.
42. What is the option value?
To the value of the expected benefits that potential users of the environment would be
willing to pay to conserve and dispose of a resource in the future.
43. What is the value of existence?
It is one that a person can assign to a resource with unique characteristics or meanings.
important cultural aspects for society, due to the fact that it is available in the present or
future.
44. When and where was the concept of environmental services first proposed in Mexico?
In the legislation on July 3, 2000, with the enactment of the General Wildlife Law.
(Article 3)

Chapter 7
45. What does social participation (SP) consist of for the DS?

46. What are NGOs and what should their involvement be in sustainable development?

Non-governmental organization (NGO), in most cases they act in good faith and with
environmental knowledge and sufficient technical support to oppose or support a specific
project; however, this also states that these groups are manipulated by interests of
political or economic character.
47. How is the PS in our country?
They have invoked a very heterogeneous process, due to the great diversity of organizations.
involved (ranging from foundations and private assistance groups to producers of
social sector and business chambers, non-governmental organizations and associations of
profession)
48. What does institutional participation for sustainable development consist of?
49. Regarding the PS, has it been beneficial for our country to sign the agreements of
the different international meetings (justify your answer)?

Dr. Carlos Joel Ábrego Góngora

 AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF NUEVO LEÓN
SCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Unit 2
50. What does Title V of the LGEEPA establish?
It denotes social participation and environmental information, establishing that 'The federal government
must promote the appropriate participation of society in planning, execution,
evaluation and monitoring of environmental policies.
51. How does SEMARNAT integrate PS into its structure?
It will integrate consultation bodies involving entities and dependencies of the
public administration, academic institutions, social and business organizations, that
They will have opinions and observations that they deem relevant.

Chapter 8
52. What are common environmental resources?
They are biophysical systems that support social life.
53. What are common property resources?
They belong to the population of a country, state, or locality, and their administration is the responsibility of the
federal, state, and local governments, as well as protected natural areas.
54. The wealth of a nation is conceptualized in terms of four dimensions, what are they?
Physics encompasses the traditional concept, including infrastructure, machinery, and equipment.
The human. Made up of the individual capabilities of citizens and their potentialities
It is the human capital
The institutional or social: created by organizational and institutional forms, cultural expressions
predominant and behavioral patterns that enhance capacities
productive of a nation.
The ecological. It encompasses the set of common environmental assets or resources that provide a flow.
vital ecological goods and services, commercial and non-commercial renewable and non-renewable.

55. According to Gabriel Cuadri de la Torre, what does the sustainability of development depend on?
It depends on a 'proper' management of something we can call common environmental resources.
(RAC)
that in the case of the city are represented by the atmospheric carrying capacity,
of the watersheds that supply it and the territorial space and its resources.
56. How are economic resources classified?
Natural resources; they are produced by natural processes of the earth.
Capital goods: they are manufactured items made from natural resources, which are used to
produce and distribute economic goods.
Labor or workforce: it corresponds to the physical and mental abilities of people.
57. Note down three economic indicators
Gross Domestic Product.
Market value.
Services produced by an economy for final use during a year.
58. Why can't economic indicators be used as indicators of
social welfare, environmental health or ecological?
They hide the damages of an economy.
It does not indicate how income and resources are distributed among populations.

Dr. Carlos Joel Ábrego Góngora

 AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF NUEVO LEÓN
SCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Unit 2
It is used to indicate the necessary consumption and satisfaction created in form
artificial.
The cost of ecosystem degradation is not taken into account.
59. What is the purpose of the Human Development Index?
Estimate the average quality of life in different countries.
60. What are external costs?
They are real costs for some members of society; companies normally do not have them.
take into account when making decisions about production rates.
61. What are private costs?
They are those that appear in the income statement at the end of the year.
62. What are social costs?
Social cost = private costs + external environmental costs.
63. Note five economic instruments indicated in the PMA 1995-2000
It allows for achieving environmental objectives at a minimal social cost.
They give flexibility to economic agents in decision-making.
They promote technological innovation and the minimization of environmental impacts.
They can generate tax revenues that support environmental protection programs.
It allows for counting objects of environmental policy.

64. List five economic instruments that SEMARNAT has promoted with SHCP or with
SCFI.
Environmental taxes and fees.
Markets for transferable rights.
Deposit-refund system.
Private contracts.
Bids in the public sector.
Concessions.
65. What does cost-benefit analysis consist of?
In comparing several options to fulfill the project and choose the best reason for benefits and
costs.
66. Where, when, and for what purpose was cost-benefit analysis used for the first time?

It was first used in the United States of America, starting in the 30th century, to evaluate
water development projects of the US Army Corps of Engineers.
67. What is the goal of applying cost-benefit analysis to environmental issues?
It aims to make policies effective so that society does not have to pay more.
of what is necessary to determine the quality of the environment.
68. In Mexico, what has cost-benefit analysis been used for?
In the study of official standards.
69. Who are the authors of the reference book we are using in this unit and what is each one dedicated to?
one of them? Alfaro/ Limón/ Martinez/ Tijerina.

Dr. Carlos Joel Ábrego Góngora