A life support system is any natural or human-engineered system that furthers the life of the biosphere in a sustainable fashion. The fundamental attribute of life support systems is that together they provide all of the sustainable needs required for continuance of life.
At present, as never before, the future of life on our planet has become a matter of great concern. We are confronted with several warnings emphasizing the growing fragility of the Earth's life support systems.
The body of knowledge has been defined in terms units called Themes. A theme has three distinctive levels of writings: Theme Level, Topic Level and Article Level, with an increasing depth of specialization.
EOLSS Contributions are written at different levels of hierarchy: Theme Level Writings, Topic Level Writings, Article Level Writings. The Theme-level chapter represents an overview that is addressed to a broad readership.
