Sustainable Communities

A nice idea from Briley Habib, who visited Iceland with her students quite recently.

Went to Iceland and some students collected data for their IA. Now using their photos to complete a first draft off an Egan wheel using primary and secondary data #geographyteacher pic.twitter.com/ZRE6eMRWDt

— Briley Habib (@Map_Addict) March 23, 2023

Sustainable development was originally defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In 2004 Sir John Egan was asked to examine how communities could be more sustainable. Egan suggests that sustainable communities must meet ‘the diverse needs of existing and future residents, their children and other users’ by offering choice. In order to be sustainable, communities must: 

• Make effective use of natural resources 
• Enhance the environment 
• Promote social cohesion and inclusion and 
• Strengthen economic prosperity. 

He introduced what is referred to as the ‘Egan Wheel’ which can be used as a tool for assessing sustainable communities. 

If a group is settled in a small community like Hveragerdi, Selfoss or similar... they could use some available time to investigate how sustainable the community was - perhaps with some interviews with locals or other people who work in the area. This would make it more of an obvious fieldwork location than just an overnight stay on an awe and wonder trip.