In 1968 when I forsook horticulture and plant physiology to try, with the help of Sea Grant funds, wetland ecology, it didn t take long to discover a slim volume published in 1959 by the University of Georgia and edited by R. A. Ragotzkie, L. R. Pomeroy, J. M. Teal, and D. C. Scott, entitled Proceedings of the Salt Marsh Conference held in 1958 at the Marine Institute, Sapelo Island, Ga. Now forty years later, the Sapelo Island conference has been the major intellectual impetus, and another Sea Grant Program the major backer, of another symposium, the International Symposium: Concepts and...

This book describes the nascent field of sustainability science, and shows how technology systems will play a key role in matching the most appropriate science and technology solutions to specific sustainability problems in specific places.