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The paper aims at a diagnostic study on the prospects of sustainable rural development in the context of implementing the regional development strategy and sustainable rural development in the context of implementing the regional development strategy 2014-2020, by using a system of specific, quantifiable and representative indicators to allow, through econometric analyses, the evaluation of the results and the projection of the evolution of the sustainable development phenomenon. The approach of sustainable development and rural development in a strategic context had, mainly, a theoretical character, the analysis being oriented towards: the delimitation of the different conceptual aspects regarding: sustainable development strategies; addressing rural development through sustainable development; regulations on sustainable development at global, European and national level, etc. In this context, the paper aimed to identify how to approach sustainable development in regional development strategies with a case study, and socioeconomic assessment of the development of the Northeast Region, the development of strategies to promote sustainable agriculture at the producer level. and the individual peasant household to the level of agricultural societies. The information used in the analysis corresponds to the database of the European Commission's Farm Accounting Information Network (RICA) and the methodology includes the min-max approach and multivariate methods, in particular the analysis of the main component and the analysis of clusters. The analyses focus on highlighting the logic of strategic intervention by capturing priorities, strategic objectives, results and impact. The analysis allowed the identification of the interconnection of strategic objectives with the sustainable development objectives established at national level and the identification of result indicators related to the strategic objectives necessary to monitor the implementation of strategies, all against the different methodologies for achieving the two evaluated strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Agricultural systems continuously evolve and are forced to change as a result of a range of global and local driving forces. Agricultural technologies and agricultural, environmental and rural development policies are increasingly designed to contribute to the sustainability of agricultural systems and to enhance contributions of agricultural systems to sustainable development at large. The effectiveness and efficiency of such policies and technological developments in realizing desired contributions could be greatly enhanced if the quality of their ex-ante assessments were improved. Four key challenges and requirements to make research tools more useful for integrated assessment in the European Union were defined in interactions between scientists and the European Commission (EC), i.e., overcoming the gap between micro–macro level analysis, the bias in integrated assessments towards either economic or environmental issues, the poor re-use of models and hindrances in technical linkage of models. Tools for integrated assessment must have multi-scale capabilities and preferably be generic and flexible such that they can deal with a broad variety of policy questions. At the same time, to be useful for scientists, the framework must facilitate state-of-the-art science both on aspects of the agricultural systems and on integration. This paper presents the rationale, design and illustration of a component-based framework for agricultural systems (SEAMLESS Integrated Framework) to assess, ex-ante, agricultural and agri-environmental policies and technologies across a range of scales, from field–farm to region and European Union, as well as some global interactions. We have opted for a framework to link individual model and data components and a software infrastructure that allows a flexible (re-)use and linkage of components. The paper outlines the software infrastructure, indicators and model and data components. The illustrative example assesses effects of a trade liberalisation proposal on EU’s agriculture and indicates how SEAMLESS addresses the four identified challenges for integrated assessment tools, i.e., linking micro and macro analysis, assessing economic, environmental, social and institutional indicators, (re-)using standalone model components for field, farm and market analysis and their conceptual and technical linkage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Definitions of sustainability abound. However, they tend to be abstract and thus open to diverging interpretations. Conversely, scientists need concrete guidance to develop quantitative measures of the sustainability of agricultural systems, such as sustainability indicators. Bridging this gap between what policy provides and what scientists need involves strong normative elements. Many publications on sustainable agriculture suggest bridging the gap through participatory stakeholder processes. However, participatory stakeholder involvement is not always practicable, due to the high cost and time required. In addition, the outcome of such processes can lack transparency and validity to outsiders. In this paper (the first of a series of two, [Walter, C. and Stützel, H., 2009-this issue. A new method for assessing the sustainability of land-use systems (II): Evaluating impact indicators. Ecological Economics]), we introduce an alternative method for concretising sustainability within a given context. It is based on a systematic inventory of potential issues through a structured literature review, and then uses a simple and transparent criterion to decide which of these potential issues is actually relevant within the given context. This approach yields a set of concrete issues against which to test the impact of agricultural production systems. It also makes transparent the normative and descriptive elements of the process, which helps to control value-driven biases. We demonstrate the practical applicability of this approach by testing it for an agricultural area in Northwest Germany. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]