Mapping and Scoping of the World Concepts to the Sustainable Development Goals: The First Review

Abstract

As the world continues to embrace the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), member countries are becoming more proactive in this pursuit, leading the way to solve the most complex problems of our time. In response to acceptance of the SDGs by member nations, researchers began to map or check the scope of important themes contained in the SDGs. This research led to a better understanding of the interactions between the three pillars of sustainability: economy, society, and environment, and their effects on mapping SDG themes. After 2015, the number of research studies performing the mapping, or scoping, of the world concepts to the SDGs increased. This article offers a systematic review that synthesizes the information gleaned from this research. This review showed that the mapped themes are multidisciplinary, but their impacts, influence, role, responsibilities, synergies, and trade-offs are intrinsic to the SDGs. Some of the themes mapped to the SDGs in this review act as catalysts to foster the achievement of SDGs, while some of the issues act as roadblocks that can cripple the achievement of SDGs. Looking at an issue through the lens of SDGs will enable us to understand the balance needed between profit, people, and the planet. The major takeaway from this review is that the water-food-energy nexus acts as a potential linkage with SDGs and helps in understanding the interrelated dynamics between human population and the natural environment.

Introduction

The term Sustainable Development was coined more than 25 years ago when the world felt that it needed development from all the corners of the globe rather than from a few countries.¹ The most widely accepted definition of sustainable development, “development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” was first mentioned in the Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. (p. 54)^2,3

Earlier, conventional approaches to development had left millions in abject poverty and placed progressively greater strains on the carrying capacity of the Earth's natural systems.⁴ Development approaches that include the core concepts of sustainability help establish the roots of fundamental change in our social systems and institutions. The thrust of these changes relates to addressing the challenges embedded in the new global awareness that the Earth is finite and all of the planet's life support systems, including social and economic systems, are globally interconnected and interdependent.⁵

Governments, businesses, and international organizations have struggled to implement policies consistent with this vision. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), set by the United Nations (UN) in the year 2000, attempted to eradicate poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and diseases, but were discontinued at the end of 2015, though there were many lessons learned from their implementation. The MDGs were concrete, specific, and measurable, and therefore helped to focus on priorities in international development.⁶ However, in doing so, other equally important and pressing areas were left out.⁷

On September 25, 2015, the 193 member states of the UN adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 aspirational objectives with 169 targets expected to guide actions of governments, international agencies, civil society, and other institutions over the next 15 years (2016 to 2030). Succeeding the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the ambitious 2030 Agenda is a global vision for people, for the planet, and for long-term prosperity. It charts a plan for the future, shifting the world onto a sustainable and resilient course and leading to transformation in standards of living and to a transition to more inclusive, dynamic, and sustainable pathways to development.⁸

The 17 SDGs aim at ending poverty and hunger while restoring and sustainably managing natural resources. They integrate all three dimensions of sustainable development, namely, economic, social, and environmental, which are closely interwoven.⁹ These three pillars of sustainable development are informally referred to as profit, people, and the planet. The SDGs are indivisible, meaning that no one goal is separate from the others, and all call for comprehensive and participatory approaches. And, they are universal, that is, the 2030 Agenda is relevant to the developed, developing, and the least developed countries.

Defined, devised, and fully-owned by the countries after the broadest and most intensive global multi-stakeholder consultation in history, the 2030 Agenda is currently in action mode.¹⁰ For most of the countries, the SDGs are the main reference for developmental policies and programs at the national level. Food-FAO mentions that each country has reviewed the 17 goals to determine how they can be translated into feasible but ambitious development plans, and how they can commit national efforts to produce real change based on their own priorities, needs, stage of development and capacities, resources, strategies, and alliances.¹⁰

Much of the work in this area has used a tripartite nested model of sustainable development, which encompasses the UN proposed SDGs (Figure 1).^11–17 This model has pushed for a new way of viewing the economic, social, and ecological aspects of the SDGs.¹⁸ Basiago reported that sustainable development will only be achieved in total if sustainability is considered in all three dimensions: environment, society, and economy.¹¹

Figure 1.

Tripartite nested model of sustainable development, which encompasses the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The UN has provided a path for achieving the SDGs, one that is being followed by most countries as they engage to solve the complex problems of sustainability. In response, researchers have begun to map out, or check, the scope of important themes to the SDGs. The results of this mapping process help in understanding the interactions between the three pillars of sustainability: economy, society, and environment.

The 2030 Agenda emphasizes the importance of understanding and acting upon the interlinkages between policy areas that are related to the SDGs. Nilsson et al. reported that interactions can be both positive and negative.¹⁹ A better understanding of positive interactions provides the prospect of identifying co-benefits that enable achieving outcomes at a lower cost or with enhanced impact through coordination of action. Negative interactions should also be given importance on a parallel note with positive interactions.¹⁹ Breuer et al. mention the importance of negative interactions as they make it difficult to achieve policy coherence related to the SDGs.²⁰

Studies by Stafford-Smith et al. noted that any vagueness about interlinkages in the SDGs will open the possibility of perverse outcomes and unrealized synergies, and stressed that there must be greater attention placed on interlinkages in three areas: across sectors (e.g., finance, agriculture, energy, and transport), across societal actors (local authorities, government agencies, private sector, and civil society), and between and among low-, medium-, and high-income countries.²¹

Mapping subject matter to SDGs will give hints about its impact, contribution, dependency, influence, spin-off, trade-offs, synergies, and interlink-abilities with sustainable development. The importance of identifying potential trade-offs helps in the mitigation and management of conflicts between the goals. Scoping a subject to SDGs investigates the extent of its relevancy and opportunity, the possibility of its roles and responsibilities, and the material issues in the process of its life cycle. The number of research studies that are investigating the mapping or scoping of the world concepts to the SDGs has increased since 2015.^20,22 The objectives of reviewing them include: 1.

To report the timely literature that meets an inclusion criterion related to interlinkages of SDGs with respect to various themes.

To tabulate the methodologies used for mapping or scoping various themes to the SDGs.

To summarize the results of mapping or scoping a theme to the SDGs.

Materials and Methods

A systematic search was used to identify published, peer-reviewed studies and available reports from the UN and its partners, specifically ones that performed mapping or scoping the concepts to SDGs. The literature search was restricted to publications that were published after 2015. (The importance of mapping the concepts to SDGs became popular after their adoption by UN member countries in 2015.)

Data sources included the following databases: Emerald, Google Scholar, IOPScience, iMedPub, Nature, MDPI, Pubmed, Sage Publishing, Science Direct, Taylor and Francis Online, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library, and Wiley Online Library. Web portals belonging to the UN and its partners (or observers) UNDP, UNICEF, IPIECA, European Union, WHO, FAO, World Bank, and UN-SDSN were used to do the keyword search.

Keywords included in the search criteria were selected to effectively retrieve the sectors, themes, and services related to the interlinkages of the SDGs. Hence, search criteria used for this review involved multiple combinations of search terms, each linked to the term sustainable development goals/SDGs as follows:

“mapping of … to sustainable development goals/SDGs”

“scope of … to sustainable development goals/SDGs”

“linkages with sustainable development goals/SDGs”

“role of … to suitable development goals/SDGs”

“sustainable development goals/SDGs and relation with”

“contribution to sustainable development goals/SDGs”

“mapping synergies and trade-offs between … and sustainable development goals/SDGs”

“implications for sustainable development goals/SDGs”

The results were further screened for content through descriptions, which allowed for mapping the subject matter to all 17 SDGs, a major criteria for inclusion.

Results

A total of 58 publications were reviewed and linked to content topics as follows:

17 linked to Food, Water, Energy, Natural Resources, Climate Change, and Nexus concepts

14 linked to Ecosystems and Life Support Systems

14 linked to Sector/Industry

7 linked to Action and Policy issues

6 linked to Technologies

Tables 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 show the results with respect to the listed categories, respectively, presented with the source of the article, the mapped theme, methodology of mapping, and a summary.

Table 1.

List of Publications/Reports that Mapped Food, Water, Energy, Natural Resources, Climate Change, and Nexus Concepts to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Source	Theme of Mapping Component/ Sub-Theme	Method of Mapping/Scope	Summary of Research
Hawkes²³	Food/Nutrition	16 SDGs (1–16) classified into five areas in terms of human development; analysis of the role of nutrition in each area; evidence found to connect the nutrition and these five classes.	There is incredible potential in integrating nutrition through the SDGs to address multiple goals universally—as a global community, as nations, as communities, as families, and as people.
Alcamo²⁴	Water/Water Quality	Established explicit interlinkage between water quality and SDGs along with trade-offs and synergies using multidisciplinary review of literature and case studies.	Water quality plays different roles in SDG interlinkages—as a driver, as an intermediary, as a loser in a trade-off situation, or as a beneficiary of a synergy.
Ezbakhe²⁵	Water/Water Pollution	Mapped the consequences of water pollution to SDGs using descriptive approach.	Water pollution can hinder the realization of various SDGs, and water quality can also benefit from the achievement of SDGs.
McCollum et al.²⁶	Energy	Mapped the SDGs using their energy interlinkages by using two-stage literature review procedure.	“Doing energy right” is fundamental to the success of the 2030 Agenda.
Nerini et al.²⁷	Energy	Mapped the energy sector to SDGs by identifying the normative implications of each target for energy systems and evidence of empirical relationships between the achievement of each target and decisions about energy systems in pursuit of SDG 7.	Energy systems act as a foundation for social and economic development and affect the delivery of outcomes across all SDGs.
Santika et al.²⁸	Energy	Methodology containing five steps, starting with the literature search, through an in-depth quantitative analysis based on empirical evidence, to quantify additional energy demand for each of the targets included in the synthesized interlinkages between energy and SDGs.	Interlinkages between energy and SDG targets revealed a complex interaction involving synergies and trade-offs that would significantly impact future energy scenarios at national and local levels.
Barredo²⁹	Energy/Renewable Energy Sector	A holistic mapping was done by using best practices, case studies in the industry, and existing knowledge of the renewable energy sector.	Renewable energy is a linchpin of the Sustainable Development Agenda. Company policies and practices should align to the Sustainable Development Agenda and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights; companies can amplify positive contributions to the SDGs and ensure that contributions to some SDGs do not come at the expense of others.
Merino-Saum et al.³⁰	Natural Resources/Green Economy (GE) Indicators	The linkage between SDGs and natural resources was studied through systematic analysis of 494 green economy (GE) indicators, derived from 12 distinct frameworks focusing on GE or green growth.	GE indicators focus unevenly on SDGs, although each SDG is related to at least one resource category.
Ruijs, van der Heide, and van den Berg³¹	Natural Resources: Natural Capital Accounting (NCA)	Used analytical methods that are potentially available for analyzing the policy issues to map the role of NCA and SDGs	NCA can provide valuable elements, lessons, and practices that can be used to develop and implement the policies needed to attain the SDGs at the country level.
Nerini et al.³²	Climate Change	Building on previous publications, the expert elicitation process was undertaken by the authors as a body of experts from diverse disciplines spanning engineering, natural and social sciences.	Climate change will affect the achievability of goals relating to material and physical well-being such as prosperity and welfare; poverty eradication and employment; food, energy, and water availability; and health.
Northrop et al.³³	Climate Change: Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC)	Examples of climate targets, goals, policies, and measures (collectively referred to as climate actions) were drawn from across the INDCs and compared to the 169 targets underpinning the 17 SDGs.	There is a high degree of alignment between the climate actions communicated by countries and the SDGs and targets that underpin them. This strongly suggests that the implementation of both of these agendas at the national level has the potential to be mutually beneficial.
Carvalho and Spataru³⁴	Nexus Concept/ Water-Energy Nexus	Used literature survey to pinpoint the affectable areas of SDGs.	Connecting SDGs with water-energy nexus thinking and the principle of integration could progress toward a more coherent value-based mentality in policy making and sustainable outcomes.
Milan³⁵	Nexus Concept/ Domestic Water Demand in Cities	Considered the influence of domestic water demand in cities on SDGs using evaluation criteria by reviewing recent literature on urban water.	The magnitude of the increase in domestic water use will affect industrial and agricultural demands.
Rasul³⁶	Nexus Concept/ Food, Water, and Energy Nexus	Investigated the problems in the current policies and mapped their consequences to SDGs.	Food, water, energy security, and the SDGs need to be addressed in an integrated way in South Asia.
Singh et al.³⁷	Nexus Concept/ Climate Change and Oceans	Elicited experts who conducted a literature review to map the consequences of climate change impacts on the oceans to SDGs.	Climate change is impacting marine ecosystems and their goods and services in diverse ways, and directly hinders the ability to achieve the SDGs.
Smith et al.³⁸	Nexus Concept/ Land-Based Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) Options on Ecosystem Services	Based on the impact of GGR methods on ecosystem function, nature's contribution to people (NCPs), and SDGs.	All land-based GGR options contribute positively to at least some NCPs and SDGs, but wetland restoration and soil carbon sequestration almost exclusively have positive impacts.
Thengius and Preston³⁹	Nexus Concept/ Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)	Used methodology similar to that of Nerini et al.³²	This study led to identification of synergies and trade-offs between the GERD and each target of the 17 SDGs.

Table 2.

List of Publications/Reports that Mapped the Ecosystems or Life Support Systems to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Source	Ecosystem Type Used to Map the SDGs	Method of Mapping	Summary of Research
Swamy et al.⁴⁰	Tropical Forests	The methodology contains a qualitative assessment of the academic and policy literature on development and tropical forests and maps their role to SDGs.	Tropical forests serve as an important building block for achieving SDGs.
Baumgartner⁴¹	Forest	Sustainable principles and topics related to the forest sector were used as primary factors for mapping forest ecosystems to SDGs.	Emphasizing the forest sector can help to achieve SDGs, especially SDG 15.
DasGupta et al.⁴²	Biodiversity/Ecosystem Services	A systematic review consisting of screening, identification, and methodical analysis of scenario exercises about biodiversity/ecosystem services, was used to map their relationship to SDGs.	So far, spatially explicit, exploratory scenarios dominate regional ecosystem services/biodiversity scenario research, with emphasis on the assessment of likely trades-offs in food-provisioning ecosystem services.
Brander and Baulcomb⁴³	Marine Ecosystem	Elicited experts to conduct a literature review to map the advantages of marine ecosystems linked to SDGs.	Healthy marine and coastal ecosystems significantly support the achievement of a range of SDGs in many different ways and often at a very fundamental level.
Ntona and Morgera⁴⁴	Marine Ecosystem	Used the functions of marine spatial planning and ecosystem services to map marine ecosystems to socioeconomic issues elaborated by SDGs.	Focusing on marine ecosystem services and their contribution to different facets of human well-being may provide an opportunity to operationalize an element of the ecosystem approach.
Le Blanc, Freire, and Vierros⁴⁵	Oceans	Used available reports from the UN (and its partners) along with the scientific case studies of ocean ecosystems that have been used to map the relationship between oceans and SDGs.	Many interlinkages between oceans targets and other SDGs have the potential to be addressed through synergies; some of them involve trade-offs and may not be amenable to win-win solutions.
Ho and Goethals⁴⁶	Ecosystem/ Lakes and Reservoirs	Performed literature survey and applied functions of lakes/reservoirs to map linked to SDGs.	Actions to achieve the sustainable development of lakes and reservoirs have strong interlinkages with nine SDGs, split into the three Ps: People (SDGs 1, 2, 3); Planet (SDGs 6, 13, 14, 15); Prosperity (SDGs 7, 8). The actions for achieving lake sustainability mainly have positive links with the SDGs related to environmental dimensions (SDGs 6, 13, 14, 15) as they mutually reinforce each other.
Keesstra et al.⁴⁷	Life Support System/ Soil and Soil Science	Considered the role of soils when studying major environmental issues, many of which relate to SDGs.	The UN SDGs provide a widely recognized societal framework that allows soil science to demonstrate its relevance for realizing a sustainable society by 2030.
Keesstra et al.⁴⁸	Ecosystem/ Land	Established the linkages between the SDGs, societal challenges, concepts in soil, land, and water management, and indicators and processes in the biosphere.	Healthy soils and healthy land are essential to achieving many of the societal goals in the framework of the SDGs.
Smith⁴⁹	Soil Science, Soil Functions, and the Ecosystem Services	Utilized the links between soil science, soil functions, and the ecosystem services to map their contribution to the delivery of each SDG.	Finding land management options that co-deliver across several global challenges is difficult, but experimental networks, modeling tools, and spatial analysis will help to identify potential co-benefits and trade-offs.
Wood et al.⁵⁰	Ecosystem Services	Mapping has been done based on expert surveys of the contributions of 16 ecosystem services to achieving SDG targets linked to the environment and human well-being.	Ecosystem services make important contributions to achieving SDGs.
Maes et al.⁵¹	Urban Ecosystems	Mapping was based on published evidence of synergies or trade-offs between SDG targets and urban ecosystems.	Sustainable management of urban ecosystems cannot be achieved without addressing other issues such as economic growth, equality, or good governance.
Smiciklas⁵²	Smart Cities	17 case studies were used to map the ICT-enabled cities to the SDGs.	Smart cities will play an important role in achieving the SDGs.

Table 3.

Publications/Reports that Mapped a Sector or an Industry to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Source	Sector or Industry Mapped to SDGs	Method of Mapping	Summary of Research
Avrampou et al.⁵³	European Banking Sector	Used Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) performance indicators to map the leading European Banking concepts to SDGs.	Contributions from the banking sector remain particularly varied toward most SDGs.
Baek⁵⁴	Agenda 2063	Correlated the concept of 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063.	Many African countries have prioritized structural transformation as a development objective.
Benton and Shaffer⁵⁵	Nursing	Performed scientometrics analysis on the published literature related to the MDGs and SDGs to map nursing services to SDGs.	So far the contribution from nursing services has been narrowly focused, but the profession could contribute to all 17 SDGs.
ICTSD⁵⁶	Services	Conceptualized a three-criterion framework for mapping the services to SDGS.	Services also matter for the attainment of SDGs because the efficiency and performance of many service sectors are a determinant of an economy's growth rate.
IPIECA, UNDP, and IFC⁵⁷	Oil and Gas Industry	Used holistic mapping by using best practices in the industry and existing knowledge.	Oil and gas production can foster economic and social development by providing access to affordable energy, opportunities for decent employment, business and skills development, increased fiscal revenues, and improved infrastructure.
Körfgen et al.⁵⁸	Austrian Research Contribution	Analyzed the outcomes from recent scientific projects from Austrian research landscape.	Universities can contribute to the implementation of the SDGs by providing know-how and best-practice examples to support implementation and by integrating issues of sustainability into their operations, research, education, and science-society interactions.
Mancini et al.⁵⁹	Raw Materials	Literature review and evidence were used to map the potential impacts and contributions of raw materials sector to SDGs.	In many cases, raw materials have a twofold role as they can both contribute to and hinder the achievement of SDGs.
Monteiro, da Silva, and Neto⁶⁰	Global Mining Industry	Used literature survey and field visits to map the contributions of mining industry to SDGs.	Through the effort and collaboration between miners, government, and local communities, it is possible to glimpse the potential of the sector to achieve the proposed 17 SDGs.
Sonesson, Davidson, and Sachs⁶¹	Global Mining Industry	Holistic mapping by using best practices in the industry and existing functional knowledge.	Mining companies will have positive contributions to the SDGs, which include both improvements toward the SDGs and the corresponding targets above the baseline, as well as preventing or mitigating negative impacts on the SDGs and corresponding targets.
Queenan et al.⁶²	Health/One Health (OH) Concept	Extensive literature review was done to map the usability of OH concepts to SDGs.	A paradigm shift is urgently required to connect human, animal, plant and ecosystem health and to take a more integrated approach to health, One Health (OH). The SDGs provide a unique opportunity for a move toward a more integrated approach to the future health of all.
Nansai et al.⁶³	Global Metal Industry	Performed regression analysis using panel data on material flows of metals and SDG indicators.	More SDGs will be negatively impacted in metal-mining countries than in metal-importing countries.
Sullivan, Thomas, and Rosano⁶⁴	Industrial Ecology	Systematic review of literature with thematic and conceptual analysis using Leximancer^TM was used to perform mapping of industrial ecology to SDGs.	The analysis found that the integration of industrial ecology and business strategy is highly relevant for certain SDGs, but captures elements of all 17 SDGs to varying degrees.
Urosevic et al.⁶⁵	Tourism	Mapped the roles of tourism sector to SDGs by considering literature review, country review reports, corporate social responsibility reports, and consultation of peer review by UN partners and relevant entities.	Tourism sector acts as a contributor and accelerator of the SDGs. The reports suggest better integration of sustainable tourism in national planning processes.
Vladimirova and Le Blanc⁶⁶	Education	37 flagship reports from the UN system (including the World Bank) were considered for linking education and SDGs.	The reports identify links between education and all the SDGs, with the notable exception of SDG 14 on oceans.

Table 4.

Publications/Reports that Mapped the Action and Policy Issues to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Source	Issues Mapped to SDGs	Method of Mapping/Scope	Summary of Research
Faridi, Bhamra, and Arora⁶⁷	Social Safety Net(s)/Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)	Mapping was done on a matrix by considering MGNREGA's activities outcomes, and its fulfillment of SDGs.	MGNREGA's contributions to certain SDGs were highly appreciated.
Giribabu et al.⁶⁸	Social Safety Net(s)/ Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)	Holistic approach was used to correlate and map the concepts and outcomes of MGNREGA program to SDGs by considering literature review and case studies.	The results indicated that community-based participation in the planning and development activities at regional levels bring benefits to the biosphere, society, and economy at the national level.
Gupta and Vegelin⁶⁹	Inclusive Development	All 17 SDGs were used to assess how well they represent inclusive development using basic principles.	Inclusive development analysis of the SDGs may help to assess whether the textual design truly aims at ensuring that development focuses both on social and ecological issues, as well as on the political tools for achieving the transformation to which it aims.
Hermans, Huyse, and Van Ongevalle⁷⁰	Social Dialogue	Considered 17 SDGs divided into five thematic clusters and used the functions of social dialogue to establish a relationship with SDGs.	Social dialogue offers specific and tested tools for translating into practice key principles of the Development Effectiveness Agenda, especially through the emphasis that it places on democratic ownership, inclusiveness, and accountability.
UNCTAD⁷¹	Consumer Protection	Used the concepts of consumer behavior to map the role of consumer protection in SDGs.	Consumer protection can be a major contribution to meeting the SDGs. This is particularly true for developing countries and economies in transition where efforts to empower consumers can help leapfrog development stages.
Wernham⁷²	UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)	All the articles of UNCRC were used as a reference to map the SDGs.	According to UNICEF's interactive mapping of SDGs and the UNCRC, all goals are relevant to children since they attempt to secure a collective future.
Giribabu et al. ⁷³	Open Defecation	Mapped the negative effects of pathogens like viruses, bacteria, and helminths due to open defecation, to SDGs by considering medical literature review.	The practice of open defecation cripples the advancements of SDGs.

Table 5.

Publications/Reports that Mapped the Technologies that Can Foster the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Source	Technology Mapped to SDGs	Method of Mapping/Scope	Summary of Research
Barbier and Burgess⁷⁴	Systems Approach to Sustainability	Mapped the functions of systems approach to sustainability and the SDGs.	There may be important trade-offs in attempting to attain all these goals simultaneously.
Masó et al.⁷⁵	Earth Observation (EO) Systems	Established the relationship between EO networks, Essential Variables (EVs) (such as Climate, Biodiversity, or Oceans) and SDGs.	The UN and Group on Earth Observations (GEO) should collaborate to create new indicators based on existing EVs to monitor the SDGs.
See et al.⁷⁶	Earth Observation System	Mapped the remote sensing and geospatial information to SDGs based on their technical calibre.	Used Earth observation technology supports to observe most of the SDG targets and indicators.
Schroeder, Anggraeni, and Weber⁷⁷	Circular Economy (CE) Practice	Used literature review and a matching exercise to determine the relationship between CE practices and SDGs.	CE practices, potentially, can contribute directly to achieving a significant number of SDG targets.
Wu et al.⁷⁸	Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)	Used existing literature, reviews, and discussion to map the usefulness of ICTs in achieving the SDGs.	ICTs have great potential in playing key roles to support a global economy and social and environmental sustainability.
Bebbington and Unerman⁷⁹	Accounting Research	Mapping was done by synthesizing the interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainable development and their integration with accounting for sustainability.	Existing research in accounting that is relevant to individual SDGs serves as an initial link between them and the accounting discipline.

Discussion

The importance of mapping and scoping of subject matter to SDGs has been gaining momentum in recent years.⁸⁰ Subject matter can include, for example, a nation's specific problem, a specific project, a service, a phenomenon, sector, which can then be used in the process of mapping or scoping since each subject acts as a strategic planning platform. This process helps to assess the impact of an activity on the pillars of sustainability and in making a better road map.

A total of 58 articles/reports were analyzed in this review. Varied themes that include broad areas such as food, water, energy, climate change, and nexus concepts were mapped successfully by various researchers. The importance of ecosystem services, industries, action and policies, and technologies with respect to SDGs were emphasized by researchers using the mapping process. Some of the more salient results follow.

Hawkes reported that the world faces a grave nutrition crisis, but SDGs present an unprecedented opportunity to mitigate that. Efforts toward improving nutrition could also be a catalyst for achieving SDG 1.²³

Alcamo and Ezbakhe mapped the concepts of water quality and water pollution. Their studies indicated that water pollution can hinder the realization of various SDGs and at the same time water quality problems can be solved through achieving SDGs.^24,25 Alcamo concluded that water quality plays different roles in SDG interlinkages—as driver, as intermediary, as loser in a trade-off situation, or as beneficiary of a synergy.²⁴ Milan investigated the influence of domestic water demand in cities and concluded that the magnitude of the increase in demand will primarily affect the targets of SDG 2 and SDG 14.³⁵

Researchers like Rasul³⁶and Carvalho and Spataru³⁴ mapped the water-energy nexus with that of SDGs by giving special emphasis to South Asia and Brazil, respectively, and confirmed that such a nexus could help make progress toward policy making that is more coherent and value-based, leading to sustainable outcomes. McCollum et al.,²⁶ Nerini et al.,²⁷ and Santika et al.²⁸ credit the energy sector as a key enabler in achieving the SDGs since they play a pivotal role in ending poverty and hunger, providing health care, education, and water, as well as sustaining economic growth and protecting the environment. Barredo²⁹ mapped the concepts of the Renewable Energy Sector to SDGs and called it the linchpin of 2030Agenda.

Having exclusively worked on climate change and SDGs, Nerini et al.,³² Northrop et al.,³³ and Singh et al.³⁷ conveyed that climate change will affect the achievability of those goals related to material and physical well-being, such as prosperity and welfare, poverty eradication and employment, food, energy and water availability, and health. Implementing the SDGs related to climate change will also advance potential benefits offered by other SDGs.

Swamy et al.⁴⁰ and Baumgartner,⁴¹ having mapped the scope of forest ecosystems to SDGs, stated that they are important building blocks for achieving SDGs. In their systematic review of biodiversity/ecosystem services pertaining to the Asia Pacific region, DasGupta et al.,⁴² utilized a methodology that contains regional/sub-regional scenario exercises and observed that spatially explicit, exploratory scenarios dominate regional ecosystem services/biodiversity scenario research, with an emphasis on the assessment of likely trade-offs in food-provisioning ecosystem services.

Brander and Baulcomb,⁴³ Ntona and Morgera,⁴⁴ and Le Blanc et al.⁴⁵ investigated the role of oceans and marine ecosystems in achieving the SDGs. Their research concluded that healthy marine and coastal ecosystems significantly support a range of SDGs in many different ways, and often at a very fundamental level. Wood et al.⁵⁰ mapped the contributions of 16 ecosystem services in achieving SDG targets linked to environment and human well-being. Ho and Goethals⁴⁶ used functions of lakes and reservoirs to find how they could be integrated into SDGs and concluded that there is a strong interlinkage between lakes and reservoirs and people, planet, and prosperity. Keesstra et al.,⁴⁷ Keesstra et al.,⁴⁸ and Smith⁴⁹ did mapping related to soil sciences and land management and demonstrated their relevance for realizing a sustainable society by 2030.

A holistic mapping of the oil and gas industry to SDGs using best practices in the industry concluded that oil and gas production can foster economic and social development by providing access to affordable energy, opportunities for decent employment, business and skills development, increased fiscal revenues, and improved infrastructure.⁵⁷ The literature review conducted by Mancini et al.⁵⁹ used evidence to map the potential impacts of raw materials sectors to SDGs. Mapping the global mining industry to SDGs, Montiero, da Silva, and Neto⁶⁰ and Sonesson et al.⁶¹ discussed the positive and negative impacts of the industry on SDGs. Nansai et al.⁶³ performed regression analysis using panel data on material flow of metals and SDG indicators and concluded that SDGs will be more negatively impacted in metal-mining countries than in metal-importing countries. Analysis done by Sullivan, Thomas, and Rosano⁶⁴ found that the integration of industrial ecology and business strategy is highly relevant for certain SDGs, but captures elements of all 17 SDGs to varying degrees.

Earth observation systems along with remote sensing and geospatial technology will help in monitoring the SDGs.^74,76 Wu et al.⁷⁸ explained that the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have great potential in playing key roles to support economy, social, and environmental sustainability on a global scale. Accounting research was mapped to SDGs by Bebbington and Unerman,⁷⁹ concluding that existing research shows an initial link between the accounting discipline and individual SDGs.

The nursing industry, health, and child rights were also mapped to SDGs by researchers.^55,62,72 The service industry was mapped by ICTSD⁵⁶ and concluded that services also matter for the attainment of sustainable development goals because a determinant of an economy's growth rate is the efficiency and performance of many service sectors. Social dialogue offers specific and tested tools for translating into practice key principles of the Development Effectiveness Agenda, especially through the emphasis that it places on democratic ownership, inclusiveness and accountability.⁷⁰ Social safety nets that include developmental activities to protect natural resources at regional levels will yield benefits to the biosphere, society, and economy at the national level.^67,68

Researchers have successfully mapped the negative consequences of open defecation and elaborated how it cripples the advancements of SDGs.⁷³ SDG 6.2 combats the malefic effects of open defecation.

Conclusion

Sustainable development depends on a complex set of interactions between the natural environment in which we live, the society we share, and our economic conditions. Strange and Bayley¹³ argued that although the concept of sustainable development is often seen as essentially about the environment, sustainability is, in fact, about using economic development to foster a fairer society while respecting ecosystems and natural resources. SDGs enable us to view the complex problems of the planet by breaking them into three sub-components using the tripartite nested model of sustainability.

Any problem, paradigm, platform, and projects undertaken by governments, corporations, and businesses, any planning or development activity, product design, and profit analysis should be designed to balance economic, social, and environmental factors, all of which are possible through assessment of sustainability. But to assess sustainability, we need to understand the interactions between the three pillars of sustainability. Through mapping or scoping a theme of the SDGs, interactions between the natural environment and socio-economic domains can be observed.

This review analyzed 58 publications that have conceptualized the sustainability assessment by mapping or scoping within the framework of SDGs. The concept of mapping or scoping subject matter to SDGs enables identification of the potential areas that need an extra push to reach the goals of the 2030 Agenda. The following priority areas were identified from this analysis:

The water-food-energy nexus acts as a potential link with SDGs and helps understand the interrelated dynamics between human population and the natural environment.

Climate change puts an additional burden on food-water-energy as it affects the stability of natural resources. The Earth's natural resources are increasingly coming under stress and suffering from depletion, with impacts on ecosystems. This situation calls for an integrated approach to achieving the SDGs in a timely manner.

Inclusive and sustainable industrial development not only helps in advancing economic competitiveness, but helps in safeguarding the environment.

Sectors like health and education are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and are essential for the success of all SDGs.

When implementing issues that involve economy, society, and environment, the process of mapping their functions to SDGs will help align the issues to the SDGs.

Footnotes

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

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