The book is written in the backdrop of the environmental impacts of and future requirements from the natural environment for rapid economic growth that has characterized recent economic history of China and India, especially over the past few decades. The environmental impacts of such rapid economic changes have been, more frequently than otherwise, degrading in character. Environmental impacts of economic activities create degraded natural ecosystems by over utilization of nature’s provisioning ecosystem services (from Himalaya to the Ocean), as well, by the use of the natural environment as sink for dumping of unmarketable products or unused inputs of economic activities. Such processes affect wide range of ecosystem processes on which the natural environment including human population depend on.

Critical perspectives cast by various chapters in this book draw attention to the various ways in which space and power interact to produce diverse geographies of sustainability in a globalizing world. They also address the questions such as who decides what kind of a spatial arrangement of political power is needed for sustaining the environment. Who stands to gain (or lose) what, when, where, and why from certain geographical areas being demarcated as ecologically unique, fragile and vulnerable environments? Whose needs and values are being catered to by a given ecosystem service? What is the scope for critical inquiry into the ways in which the environment is imagined, represented and resisted in both geopolitical struggles and everyday life? The book provides insights to both academics from diverse disciplines and policy makers, civil society actors interested in mutual exchange of knowledge between China and India.

“This book demonstrates that the social innovations do matter and will continue to do so in the realization of environmental sustainability for two large Asian countries, China and India across diverse landscapes connected by river flows from mountain grasslands to flood plains of Himalayan rivers to the urban settlements to the remote farming areas to mangroves and estuaries. The challenge of finding innovative solutions to the problem of environmental unsustainability in China and India is compounded by social and economic transformations at local and regional scales. This provides a very useful platform for these two neighboring countries for jointly promoting innovations that would benefit humanity as a whole. This book can attract you to read, think, and act right away for promoting the environmental sustainability in China and India, even beyond.” (Bojie Fu, Academician, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Distinguished Professor, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Beijing, China)

“The future of global sustainability depends on how China and India develop in the decades ahead. This book represents an important contribution to understanding and promoting environmental sustainability in a millennial context in these two ‘civilizational twins’, with ecosystems that depend on the ‘Himalayan water tower’. I am very pleased to see the publication of this timely and productive book, given the pervading sense of urgency in the era of extensive environment degradation, especially climate change. It provides new insights on environmental sustainability from Himalayan grasslands to the coastal areas, linked by Himalayan rivers, and rural and urban landscapes in China and India. I highly recommend this important publication to researchers, designers, planners, policy makers, students, and others who are working on environmental sustainability in China or India and worldwide.” (Nitin Desai, Former Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, New Delhi, India)

“Over the past decade Professor Dong has successfully broadened his ecological focus on grassland management in China to embrace the complexities of the socialenvironmental nexus and to encourage trans-disciplinary collaborations that are essential to eventually realizing sustainable development worldwide. Here, Dong and colleagues provide a unique and useful interdisciplinary synthesis of the socialenvironmental challenges and their possible solutions across a major geopolitical landscape. I can think of no more complicated, or more important, setting for a consideration of environmental sustainability than the mountains to oceans continuum that spans the rapidly developing countries of China and India. This volume provides a solid foundation for stimulating that important discussion.” (James P. Lassoie, International Professor of Conservation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA)

Provides an interdisciplinary analysis of the environmental struggles in India and China Discusses the need for India and China to reshape engineering and policy measures to manage Himalayan grasslands, rivers and other landscapes Highlights the importance of social and political innovations for creating sustainable environments in this region Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras