Sustainable Development Goals: Analysis by Mathematics of Uncertainty

Book excerpt: This book uses mathematics of uncertainty to examine how well countries are achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the members of the United Nations, with a focus on climate change, human trafficking and modern slavery. Although this approach has never been used before, mathematics of uncertainty is well suited to exploring these topics due to the lack of accurate data available. The authors place several scientific studies in a mathematical setting to pave the way for future research on issues of sustainability, climate change, human trafficking and modern slavery to using a wide range of mathematical techniques. Moreover, the book ranks countries in terms of their achievement of not only the SDGs, but in particular those SDGs pertinent to climate change, human trafficking, and modern slavery, and highlights the deficiencies in the foster care system that lead to human trafficking. As such it is an excellent reference resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics and the social sciences, as well as for researchers and teachers.