The great challenges of sustainable development highlight an urgent need to systematically understand the mechanisms linking humans and nature. Resources and Environmental Sciences are a broad and practical discipline focused on coupled human and natural systems. They aim to study the formation and evolution of resources in the earth system, the drivers of various environmental problems, processes and relationships between resources and the environment, particularly under the combined impacts of natural conditions and human activities. The major resources and environmental problems drive the discipline development; international science programmes guide the direction of the discipline; interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary integration promotes new branches of the discipline; and technological progress results in a research paradigm shift. Facing the critical research requirements of strengthening transand interdisciplinarity, breaking through the key technology, targeting major environmental and disaster issues, and supporting sustainable development, nine critical scientific issues should be focused on climate change impact and adaptation, petroleum and mineral resources, water cycle and water resources, soil and land resources, ecosystems, remote sensing and geographic information science, environmental science and technology, disaster risk, and global and regional sustainable development. Suggestions to enhancing funding systems, improve talent cultivation, develop scientific platforms, and strength international cooperation are provided in this study to support scientific policymaking. The promotion of Resources and Environmental Sciences enables a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of economic development and environmental changes relevant to assure a more sustainable global development.

After 10 years of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident, Japan decided to release the nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean on 13 April 2021. It is apparent that Japan has chosen the most cost-efficient way to deal with the contaminated water, however, great opposition and concerns have been raised internationally due to the ecotoxicological features of radioactive materials and their harmful impacts on the environment. Here we analyze the ecological impacts caused by the nuclear accident and the potential impacts of releasing the nuclear wastewater into the ocean. Science-based solutions are proposed through a third-party evaluation and strict environmental assessment, multi-stakeholder public participation, integrated monitoring of the neighboring coastal countries, long-term international collaborative research, and setting up international convention for ecological compensation.

Higher education institutions have an essential role in sustainability. They are key agents in the education of future leaders that will contribute to the successful United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation. The geography of SDGs this implementation is very heterogeneous, but it is clear that higher education institutions contribute decisively to creating a mindset that facilitates the dissemination of SDGs principle. This perspective paper analyses the impacts of higher education on sustainability and the challenges and barriers associated with this process. Higher education contributes decisively to the SDGs implementation, but especially to Goal 1 (end poverty in all its forms everywhere), Goal 3 (ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages), Goal 5 (gender equality), Goal 8 (decent work and economic growth), Goal 12 (responsible consumption and production), Goal 13 (climate change) and Goal 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). As a transformational agent, the higher education sector has a tremendous impact on students' habit and contribution to a prosperous society. However, to establish the required change in education, sustainability principles need to be at the heart of higher institutions strategy (e.g., curricula, modus operandi) and is key to be incorporated in the organisational culture. Only by leading by example, the external influence in the society will be possible (e.g., implementing SDGs key aspects such as gender quality, reduce waste reduction and energy consumption). For this to be a reality, different communication methods with students are needed (e.g., different student academic levels). Nevertheless, critical challenges need to be tackled in the institutions inside and outside the institution environment, such as incorporating sustainability principles, political environment and stakeholders' interest.

Mineral resources are essential to prosperity and security of modern societies. How mineral resources can guarantee sustainable development of economy in countries, especially those developing countries, has long been a focus of attention of international communities. This paper provides a comprehensive summary for major advance of the research on mineral resources in past decades, and proposes some key issues regarding ore-forming mechanism, exploration and utilization of major and critical mineral resources. On the basis of these aspects, we also identify four priority science issues to be addressed in the future, including (1) mechanism of both metal circulation and extremely high concentration, (2) theories and technologies of prospecting deep-earth resources, (3) investigation of mineral resources in seafloor and polar regions, and (4) efficient, clean and recycling utilization of mineral resources. It can be expected that new advances in these four issues would tremendously promote the innovation of mineral resource science, and provide scientific and technologic support to meet the demand of mineral resources for human activities and the harmonious development of both mineral-resource exploration and ecological restoration.

Water is the fundamental natural resource that supports life, ecosystems and human society. Thus studying the water cycle is important for sustainable development. In the context of global climate change, a better understanding of the water cycle is needed. This study summarises current research and highlights future directions of water science from four perspectives: (i) the water cycle; (ii) hydrologic processes; (iii) coupled natural-social water systems; and (iv) integrated watershed management. Emphasis should be placed on understanding the joint impacts of climate change and human activities on hydrological processes and water resources across temporal and spatial scales. Understanding the interactions between land and atmosphere are keys to addressing this issue. Furthermore systematic approaches should be developed for large basin studies. Areas for focused research include: variations of cryosphere hydrological processes in upper alpine zones; and human activities on the water cycle and relevant biogeochemical processes in middle-lower reaches. Because the water cycle is naturally coupled with social characteristics across multiple scales, multi-process and multi-scale models are needed. Hydrological studies should use this new paradigm as part of water-food-energy frontier research. This will help to promote interdisciplinary study across natural and social sciences in accordance with the United Nation's sustainable development goals.

Alexander von Humboldt, was a great German geobotanist, educator and naturalist who greatly influenced science and humanities for more than two hundred years. In addition to scientific contributions (such as the understanding of vegetation distribution, the concepts of isotherm and pressure contours, and the initial concept of continental drift theory), he firmly believed in the concept of the interconnection of everything and the methodological approach of a holistic perspective to development, which has significance in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, because they include both synergy and trade-offs among these goals. China has undergone tremendous changes since its reform and opening up in 1978 and now faces severe challenges in sustainable development. The scientific methods applied by Chinese scientists in sustainability fulfil the Humboldtian holistic perspective of nature. Here I provide four successful cases and their significant implications for addressing the increasingly severe water shortage, biological conservation, and conflicts between human well-being and land. The four examples discussed in this article are enlightened to establish a strong, just, and influential government and require empirical research to implement sustainable development plans. I believe that it's vital to encourage and supervise public participation for a successful program; for example, the participants should not be restricted to project executors, i.e., farmers or workers, but also students and scientists. Eradicating poverty must be prioritized, and well-being is the ultimate goal for sustainable development. This review article provides an extremely valuable reference for other developing or even developed countries to address sustainability challenges.

Urban land-use planning, especially in the peripheral region, has become an issue in contemporary urban studies. Simultaneously, urban resilience is very indispensable for future urban land use planning and management. Therefore, consistent urban proliferation can be coped through Prediction-Adaptation-Resilience (PAR), to accomplish future urban land use and sustainable development of any growing up urban areas worldwide. Therefore, different dynamic simulation models, e.g. Cellular automata-Markov model, artificial neural network, are used to project and predict any urban areas' spatial growth. Then, the adaptation strategies are taken to assess the urban land use transformation in the past and present context. Those strategies help to strengthen urban land use planning using an integrated supply and demand chain. Finally, this study checks the resilience of how much it will be threatened or saved for future sustainable urban developmental goals and urban resilience. Therefore, it is important to establish a conceptual framework to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) based on principles of the PAR approach. Advocating the on-going adaptation of sustainability, resilience, and rapid urban transformation in the developing cities requires clear and explicit definitions that are embedded with the recent and particular context. Thus, government and policy makers should draw their attention to make proper urban landscape planning and adaptation strategies for the future urban expansion in a holistic way by maintaining appropriate urban resilience.

Globally, urban land expands at a faster rate than the corresponding urban population, which comes at a cost of agricultural and natural land. Wealth has been identified as an underlying driver of this trend, but it is unclear whether more prosperous cities inevitably have a greater urban land consumption. Here, we map urban prosperity indicators to their relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 64 major world cities and relate these to the corresponding urban land consumption (defined here as built-up land per capita). Results indicate a moderately-weak but significant correlation between overall prosperity and urban land consumption (Spearman's correlation, ρ = 0.47, p < 0.001), suggesting a trade-off between both. In addition, we find a regional clustering, with for example cities with relatively low prosperity and low urban land consumption in Africa, and cities with high prosperity and low-to-medium urban land consumption in Europe. The moderately-weak correlation in combination with these regional differences suggests that the observed trade-off is avertable and that other drivers moderate this relation. Consequently, cities can increase their prosperity without additional environmental consequences entailing land take and the conversion of natural and agricultural land.