Population, Resources and Environmental Economics

This chapter introduces Population, Resources, and Environmental Economics as an interdisciplinary field integrating economics with demography, resource science, and environmental science to study sustainable interactions among population growth, natural resources, ecological systems, and economic development. It traces the discipline evolution from early population economics (Malthus, Schultz) to post-WWII environmental and natural resources economics, influenced by global issues like resource scarcity, pollution, and climate change. The chapter emphasizes sustainable development theories from the 1980s, including UN initiatives, and explores demographic impacts on the environment, such as aging, urbanization, migration, and carbon emissions. It highlights China’s unique focus on population dynamics and modern solutions like smart cities—leveraging IoT, cloud computing for efficient urban management—and sponge cities for ecological storm water management, promoting low-carbon, resilient urban growth.