Sustainability in aeolian systems

I first examine four constraints on sustainability: the technical fix; complexity; uncertainty; environmental change. I then focus on what sustainability might mean in the aeolian context. Examples are drawn from four areas of aeolian activity: agricultural wind erosion, “soil-derived” atmospheric dust, and coastal and, very briefly, inland dunes (where the problem of sustainability is less complicated). Although there is excellent aeolian research on which to build concepts about sustainability, there is very little discussion of sustainability itself. This is partly because the term still needs to be better defined in this context. Changing climate will sharpen our thinking.