Preface

Since the second half of the 20th century, the big processes of globalization of the economy, coupled with the development of new technologies and the increase of the population, have led to the emergence of major environmental problems whose importance transcends the limits of the countries, becoming global environmental impacts.

Sustainability is one of the most important challenges for the societies of the 21st century. The conservation of the planet, as well as the fight against climate change, are crucial for the next generations to maintain a liveable world.

This book presents the current state of sustainability and intends to provide the reader with a critical perspective of how the 21st century societies must change their development model facing the new challenges (globalization, internet of things, industry 4.0, smart cities, circular economy, sustainable agriculture and so on), in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030.

The first section presents a short introduction to topics like sustainability, circular economy and sustainable development goals.

The second section covers theories about sustainable development presenting a new approach for this concept based on probabilistic and entropy theories.

The third section presents some different methodologies about sustainability assessment applied to different fields of research such as water management, software development, life cycle assessment, or smart and sustainable agriculture.

Finally, the fourth section covers different case studies varying from the presentation of a sustainability assessment tool to green building, the presentation of a case study of rural tourism and territorial development in Italy and the management of vertical and horizontal archipelagos of agriculture and rural development in the Andean realm, among others.

To end, we want to thank all the authors who contributed to this book, since they provide different approaches and very valuable contributions to face this topic from different points of view with the common objective of making the world a better place to live.

**II**

**Section 4**

Tools: Case Study Analysis

*by Mady Mohamed*

*by Moshe Gophen*

*and Francesca Giommi*

*by Christoph Stadel*

Case Studies **95**

**Chapter 7 97**

**Chapter 8 127**

**Chapter 9 145**

**Chapter 10 165**

Green Building Rating Systems as Sustainability Assessment

The Synergistic Impact of Climate Change and Anthropogenic

Horizontal and Vertical Archipelagoes of Agriculture and Rural

Management on the Lake Kinneret Ecosystem

*by Manuel Vaquero Piñeiro, Paola de Salvo* 

Development in the Andean Realm

Rural Tourism and Territorial Development in Italy

**María José Bastante-Ceca and José Luis Fuentes-Bargues** Universitat Politècnica de València, GIDDP, Departamento de Proyectos de Ingeniería, Valencia, Spain
