Re-orienting technological development for a more sustainable human-environmental relationship

Humankind's amazing innovative capacity, through the development of technology, has resulted in a tremendous expansion of civilisation but with little consideration on ecological sustainability. There is very limited understanding on the mechanism of the impacts of technology on both society and ecology. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to explicitly articulate the role of technology as a mediator of the reciprocal relationship between the eco-hydrological system and socio-economic system in catchments. It helps re-orient future technological innovation for more sustainable human-environmental relationships.