The sub-Saharan cities are growing and changing due to immigration and modernization.One of the consequences of the current urbanization is that an increasingnumber of families residing in peri-urban areas of small rural towns lack access tobasic municipal and ecosystem services. The purpose of the paper is to demonstratethe impacts of peri-urban expansion on municipal services provided by the governmentsand on ecosystems services through a case study of a small rural town calledMakhado Biaba in Limpopo Province of South Africa. Makhado Biaba has beenexperiencing incessant rapid physical expansion over the years. Such spatial expansioninto the peri-urban zone impacts the provision of municipal services such aswater, electricity, sewerage, and refuse collection. In 2020, an exploratory mixedmethodsstudy of some anthropocentric and ecosystem changes in Makhado BiabaLocal Municipality in northeast South Africa was executed. Land use was mappedfor the time period of 1990–2020, data were gathered through a household questionnairein six villages, and interviews were held with municipal officials. Among others,the study showed that several municipal services are available in the peri-urbanvillages of Makhado Biaba Town despite the distant locations outside the urbancore. However, services are not uniformly distributed due to that new peri-urbandevelopments that are leapfrogging into vacant land without supporting infrastructure.The pace of the municipality in providing the necessary municipal servicessuch as water and energy supply, as well as sanitation and refuse removal, is laggingbehind the development of new and unplanned housing areas. The findings bringabout information about the suburban livelihoods and how the administration of theperi-urban areas can respond to the needs of the inhabitants as well as to future challenges.For instance, to facilitate local development, recurrent and well-structuredcitizen dialogs with local groups to identify delivery failures are strongly recommended.In addition, the impact on ecosystem services by the city development andland use change stresses the need for guided urban development and expansion and also settlement upgrading programs in peri-urban zones to limit the bad effect onecosystem services.

Many citizens in countries now accept that there is a need to adapt to climate change and to invest in renewable resources. This paper contributes to the planning of energy development in South Africa. Currently, South Africa is faced with a crisis in energy security with ‘load shedding’ resulting in hours without power. Coal, a fossil fuel, is the main source for energy in South Africa with negative effects for the environment and human health. To provide security over the future supply of domestic energy, the technique of fracking on and offshore is being advanced as an alternative by government which has been granting exploratory fracking licences. A review of the literature at the nexus of fracking, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ecosystem services was undertaken from a triple risk lens (Prpich & Coulon 2018). The findings indicate that fracking operations may create a short-lived economic boom but there is substantive scholarly evidence on the immense long- term risks for both the environment and human health. The impact of land use changes through fracking and the risks of fracking operations for ecosystems, climate change and achieving the SDGs of Agenda 2030 are evident and form a ‘self-reinforcing loop’. We conclude that if fracking is predominantly being perceived from a prism of its economic benefits, then economic value needs to be attached to all the services that are provided by ecosystems. Thus, we recommend that an ecosystem services assessment must precede the granting of frackinglicences to evaluate whether fracking is a viable option. It is also suggested Take Stock of Fracking Risks and Count the Costs239that compensatory justice, be included as a policy measure for rehabilitation of the land where fracking has already commenced. In conclusion, we assert that healthy, environmentally sustainable living conditions need to be provided for all citizens and investment is needed to support adequate renewable energy infrastructure, a pre- requisite for government’s Just Energy Transformation (JET). 

Higher education institutions (HEIs) have a pivotal role in fulfilling the social dimension of sustainability and contributing to a complex changing society. To meet these challenges, Malmö University has in interdisciplinary groups researched the role of challenge-based learning (CBL) in relation to staff, students, disciplines, and stakeholders. This position paper is based on that work. Malmö University argues that with a CBL approach, HEIs will actively contribute to the building of a sustainable learning society through collaboration in education, research, and innovation. This paper theoretically explores the CBL approach as a collaborative learning exchange within HEIs and society at large. CBL is defined through eight key elements, clustered as entities of three domains: diversity and inclusion, co-creation and collaboration, and change agents and contextual challenges. These are discussed and empirically exemplified with the purpose to support designing, planning, and accomplishing CBL in teaching and learning in HE for a global learning society.

In this article, we aim to identify and explore possibilities and challenges of academicinterdisciplinary capacities and ethos. The objective is that this knowledge could be used both infuture interdisciplinary research projects and in educational settings. We achieve this through selfreflectivelearning processes among a group of interdisciplinary scholars from four distinctly differentsubjects. The method used is an autoethnographic and empirical self-reflective approach to datacollection, analysis and deconstruction of professional learning processes. This also serves to establishresearch methodological trustworthiness and authenticity. The results show that interdisciplinarityis undervalued by grant-giving institutions and the academic system, in general. It also entailstime-consuming and risky research practices. However, interdisciplinary and collaborative researchcreates a more innovative and stimulating learning environment and enforces new ways of thinkingand doing, in ascertaining each individual’s knowledge and competences. We argue that a long-terminterdisciplinary and collaborative research process could enhance and raise a critical thinking andcreative consciousness among scholars, contributing to a more holistic, sustainable and socially robustlearning in research and higher education. Finally, we conclude that this academic interdisciplinarycapacity and ethos could be framed and enhanced by the notion of Challenge-Based Learning.

Research to date on urban ecosystem services has mainly been conducted in large cities, particularly in China, the USA and someEuropean countries. This study examined the provision of urban ecosystem services in a Swedish municipality context, based oninterviews with municipal stakeholders in strategic management and planning from six municipalities and a review of existingpublications readily available to practitioners. The analysis focused on (1) the ecosystem services explicitly covered, (2) whethermultifunctionality was covered and specific synergies and trade-offs identified and, (3) the spatial scale and context used forecosystem services (valuation/mapping, planning, design or maintenance) in practical application. The results showed thatregulatory services are very much the focus in municipal operations as well as in publications available to practitioners. Thisis reflected in the implementation of the concept through problem solving often related to regulatory services, usingmultifunctionality and win-win situations in ecosystem service supply. These findings contribute to the growing body of workexploring how the concept of ecosystem services is adapted and utilised in practice.

För närvarande lever vi i en tid med stora samhällsutmaningar och som ytterligare aktualiserades hösten 2018 när International Plant Protection Convention, IPPC publicerade en rapport gällande de klimatförändringar som pågår (IPCC, 2018).

Ekosystem bestående av sjöar och vattenområden är viktiga och känsliga indikatorer på klimatförändringar eftersom de svarar relativt snabbt på förändringar i klimatet. Många sjöar på norra halvklotet täcks av is under vintern och de är dimiktiska, vilket innebär att vattnet cirkulerar två gånger varje år. Isen förhindrar inte bara gasutbyte eller vindblandning utan isen tillsammans med snö, är också ett stort hinder som förkortar odlingsperioden för alla producenter i sjön genom att minska ljusinsläppet. Vårblomningen av växtplankton tillsammans med den termiska skiktningen som sker under den lugnare sommarperioden kan förekomma tidigare på säsongen om isen bryts upp tidigare. Klimatuppvärmning kommer att leda till högre temperaturer och det kommer att förändra blandningsförhållandena såväl som den termiska skiktningen i sjöar. Samtliga sjöar som ingår i denna studie ligger i de södra delarna av Norrland i Sverige. Den genomsnittliga islossningen mellan 2001 – 2010 sker ungefär 12 dagar tidigare jämfört med den genomsnittliga islossningen mellan 1916 – 1925 och 11 dagar tidigare än för perioden 1976 – 1985. Den genomsnittliga årliga lufttemperaturen i Junsele uppvisar en trend där lufttemperaturen blir varmare med tiden. Högre lufttemperatur visar en god korrelation med förändringar i islossning, där sjöarna upplever en kortare tid med lager av is och snö.

Lakes are suitable sentinels of climate change because they constitute a well defined ecosystem and they respond quickly to changes in climate. Many lakes in the northern hemisphere are covered by ice during winter and they are dimictic, which means that the water circulate two times each year. The ice not only prevents gas exchanges or wind mixing, the ice, together with snow, are also a large obstacles that shortens the growing period for all the producers in the lake by reducing light penetration. Spring bloom of phytoplankton along with onset of stratification might occur earlier in the season if the ice breaks up earlier. Climate warming will lead to higher temperatures and it will alter the mixing conditions as well as affect thermal stratification in lakes. All the lakes included in this study are situated in the southern parts of the region Norrland in Sweden. The average ice break-up between 2001 – 2010 occurs about 12 days earlier compared to the average ice break-up for the period 1916 – 1925 and 11 days earlier compared to 1976 – 1985. The mean annual air temperature in Junsele shows a trend in which the air temperature is getting warmer with time. Higher air temperature shows a correlation with changes in ice phenology, where the lakes experience a shortened ice cover duration. Key Words – climate change, lakes, phenology, temperature, thermal stratification, warming

While ecosystem-based planning approaches are increasingly promoted through international and national policies, municipalities are still struggling with translating them into practice. Against this background, this paper aims to increase the knowledge of current advances and possible ways to support the implementation of the ecosystem services (ES) approach at the municipal level. More specifically, we analyze how ES have been integrated into comprehensive planning within the municipality of Malmö in Sweden over the last 60 years, a declared forerunner in local environmental governance. Based on a content analysis of comprehensive plans over the period 1956–2014 and interviews with municipal stakeholders, this paper demonstrates how planning has shifted over time toward a more holistic view of ES and their significance for human well-being and urban sustainability. Both explicit and implicit applications of the ES concept were found in the analyzed comprehensive plans and associated programs and projects. Our study shows how these applications reflect international, national, and local policy changes, and indicates how municipalities can gradually integrate the ES approach into comprehensive planning and facilitate the transition from implicit to more explicit knowledge use.