Search

Since the beginning of the 1990s, many researchers and several organizations concerned with development- and environment-related issues have devised methods to evaluate sustainable development at national and international scales. To that effect, they have identified sustainable development indicators. To date, however, very little work has focused on industrial activities. This paper presents a semi-quantitative method allowing evaluation of the environmental aspect to sustainable development, with an application on the environmental performance of the effluent treatment procedure of a paper mill. Eight environmental indicators for sustainable development are considered for evaluation. These indicators are linked to the strategic requirements for sustainable development as stated in the Bruntdland Commission. They are also acknowledged by many authors and organizations. The environmental performance evaluation on the effluent treatment procedure of the paper mill under study shows that this activity meets a relative degree of sustainability. This evaluation allows the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the effluent treatment with respect to sustainable development.Key words: indicators, sustainable development, measure, environmental performance, biologic treatment, effluents, paper mills.[Journal translation]Depuis le début des années 1990, plusieurs chercheurs et différents organismes préoccupés par les questions de développement et d'environnement mettent au point des méthodes pour évaluer le développement durable à l'échelle nationale ou internationale. Pour ce faire, ils ont identifié des indicateurs de développement durable. Cependant, très peu de travaux se sont concentrés à date sur les activités industrielles. Cet article présente une méthode semi-quantitative permettant l'évaluation du volet environnemental du développement durable avec application à la performance environnementale de la filière de traitement des effluents d'une papetière. Huit indicateurs environnementaux de développement durable sont retenus pour les fins de l'évaluation. Ces indicateurs sont rattachés aux impératifs stratégiques de développement durable énoncés par la Commission Bruntdland. Ils sont aussi reconnus par plusieurs auteurs et organismes. L'évaluation de la performance environnementale de la filière de traitement des effluents de la papetière étudiée montre que cette activité rencontre un degré relatif de soutenabilité. L'évaluation permet d'identifier les forces et les lacunes que comporte la filière de traitement des effluents en regard du développement durable.Mots clés : indicateurs, développement durable, mesure, performance environnementale, traitement biologique, effluents, papetières. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, the application of nanostructured materials in construction, such as concrete, paint, coatings, glass, renders, plasters, thermal insulation, steel, and even sensors, has become increasingly prevalent. However, previous studies and reports have raised concerns about the ecotoxicity and long-term impact of nanomaterials on human health and the environment. National and international legislation and regulations are struggling to keep up with the rapid development of nanomaterials, taking into account their unique characteristics and essential requirements for application and commercialization. This paper, based on existing standards for conventional materials and bibliometric networks of papers focused on nanomaterials, conducts a critical review and proposes relevant indicators for the application of nanomaterials in the construction sector. These indicators should be mandatory and are divided into environmental, human health, and economic perspectives, providing a risk assessment framework for applying nanomaterial-based constructive solutions oriented to environmental, social, and economic sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities located in the Arctic often have extreme geographic and environmental contexts and unique sociopolitical and economic trajectories that, when combined with amplified effects of climate change in the region, impact future sustainable development. Well-recognized and standardized sustainable development indicator (SDI) frameworks such as ISO 37120 or UN-Habitat City Prosperity Index are often used to compare data across cities globally using comprehensive sets of indicators. While such indexes help characterize progress toward development and guide short- and long-term decision-making, they often lack relevance to specific contexts or characterize future visions of urban growth. To evaluate the extent of these deficiencies and to provide a comparative analysis of approaches to sustainable urban growth in the Arctic, this paper analyzes city planning documents for five northern cities - Anchorage (USA), Utqiagvik (USA), Reyjavik (ISL), Iqaluit, (CAN), Whitehorse, (CAN) - for goals, targets, and indicators and compare these to thematic areas and indicators defined by ISO 37120:2018 Sustainable Cities and Communities. The results confirm that although international SDI frameworks may be useful for comparative analysis of cities across diverse regions, they exclude important local factors that influence goal-oriented urban sustainability planning strategies employed in the Arctic region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As more higher education institutions strive to embed sustainable development principles in their teaching, it becomes increasingly important to identify indicators that can measure institutional contribution in a meaningful and internationally comparable manner. This paper shows that existing sustainability rankings, such as the UI Green Metric and THE Impact ranking, have paid relatively little attention to indicators on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). In a quest to develop such indicators for U-Multirank—the multi-dimensional transparency and ranking tool—we reviewed the literature, consulted experts, and ran a survey amongst practitioners. This article summarises opportunities and challenges for developing internationally comparable ESD indicators in the higher education sector, discussing indicator relevance, validity, and feasibility. The results suggest that (i) ESD indicators are considered highly relevant by diverse stakeholders; (ii) the majority of HEIs surveyed are planning to collect ESD data within 3 years, signalling good prospects for data feasibility; (iii) the ESD indicators proposed so far still lack criteria that would allow one to sufficiently identify and compare these indicators across countries, inhibiting indicator validity. At least three potential definitions are used by HEIs. The results of this paper can contribute to the discussion on identifying appropriate criteria for the development of ESD indicators and their use in international rankings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-pandemic social and economic conditions, the proper assessment of the effectiveness of regional innovation systems (RISs) becomes a key endeavor. In our paper, we highlight the necessity to enhance the set of indicators used to evaluate the performance of regional innovation systems in countries with varying innovation capabilities. Specifically, we concentrate on examining case studies from the United States, Japan, China, and the Czech Republic, comparing their experiences with the current situation to innovations and innovation systems in Russia and drawing lessons for this country. Utilizing the Global Innovation Index (GII) rankings, we conduct an analysis of the characteristics of innovative progress and propose specific groups of indicators that can enhance the effectiveness of evaluating the innovative advancement of different regions. Moreover, we determine the need for uniqueness, flexibility, and adaptability of these based on the state's strategic guidelines in the field of innovation and the innovative potential of the territory as well as the factors of external and internal influence. In addition, we conduct and present the results of the bibliometric network analysis of the research publications retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database using VOSViewer software and covering the role of regional innovation systems (RISs) in shaping up the national innovation systems (NISs) both in general terms and specifically applied to the case of Russia. Our results might be relevant for the stakeholders and policymakers who are engaged in promoting innovation, regional development, and sustainable economic growth, as well as for the academics working on the topics of innovation and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the challenges that were encountered during the collection of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators for water (SDG 6), energy (SDG 7), and food (SDG 2) security in northern Canada. Our findings indicate only 49% of indicator data were publicly available, while 21% had to be calculated using alternative sources or methods, 18% had to be replaced with proxy indicators for which data were available, and 12% of indicators were deemed unavailable entirely. The most common types of data challenges were associated with completeness, timeliness, and granularity. Given the current challenges faced by residents of northern Canada, with their livelihoods closely intertwined with the accessibility and availability of water, energy and food (WEF) resources, a comprehensive plan for data collection, storage, and management of WEF-related SDGs is required to advance WEF security from an aspirational to a transformative policy agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Silvae et Ligni is the property of Biotechnical Faculty, Slovenian Forestry Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A qualitative and quantitative deterioration of natural environments occurred recently worldwide. Loss of ecological capacities and agricultural decline are the critical consequences of urbanisation. This paper focuses on the value of assessing the urban sprawl in a southern Italy territory in order to evaluate the significant landscape transformations and provide a document to local administrators for a more balanced management of land use. The importance to calculate the soil consumption dynamics is remarkable in the investigated territory, Rende municipality in the Calabria region, southern Italy, since it is characterized by the same human pressure that occurred in other Mediterranean areas, so it is well representative of wider territories included in the Mediterranean setting. The transition from rural areas to urban settlements has been investigated via landscape analysis, and conducted for spatial and temporal changes over 25 years. The landscape analysis has integrated data from the orthophotos and Esri topographic base map. Quantitatively, the estimation of urban growth, in all its components, and soil consumption are evident by analysis of the number of patches. Qualitatively, the occurred consumption of fertile soil has caused a significant impact on local environmental conditions and on human activities resulting in decreasing of arable land, which decreased significantly over the considered period. This study addresses how knowledge of the change in urban areas is needed to effectively manage urban environmental impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regime complexes have been discussed in international literature as an intervening variable which bring about policy coherence at national levels. There is a dearth of literature which examines aspects related to the link between global biodiversity regime, national policy coherence and sustainable development goals (SDGs) reporting. By taking the case study of India and using liberal institutional approaches and critical appraisal, this paper seeks to analyse the role of SDGs reporting for promoting coherence between the international biodiversity regime complex and country level planning. This paper will have implications for praxis on biodiversity and sustainable development policy as well as have implications for theory related to liberal institutional scholarship. This paper argues that while the normative scope of the global biodiversity regime has evolved to encompass principles such as scientific enquiry as well as sustainable development, national level reporting on biodiversity related SDGs have to still catch up to facilitate better policy coherence at all levels. Further the paper also calls for a greater science-policy interface to supplement SDG reporting framework towards better understanding of conservation and ecosystem services aspects of biodiversity in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Valori e Valutazioni is the property of Societa Italiana di Estimo e Valutazione (SIEV) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The latest debate on smart cities and sustainability is underpinned by the United Nations' 2030 Agenda and their accompanying Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which place urban data and monitoring systems at the forefront. Therefore, there is a strong need to assess the data-driven capabilities that will help achieve the SDGs. To fill the capability gaps between existing tools and SDG indicators, new smart city data sources are now available. However, scant indicators and assessment criteria have been empirically validated. This paper identifies some of the challenges alongside the potential of using new local data in urban monitoring systems. A case study of an SDG monitoring platform implementation in a district of Berlin is examined, and the results show that the use of locale-specific, and unofficial data not only improves data availability, but it also encourages local public participation. Based on our empirical findings, we determine that the incorporation of new data for urban sustainability monitoring should be treated as a complex social process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social criteria of sustainable development, with a focus on green building assessment tool, have remained underexplored. Moreover, a large number of green building assessment tools and social sustainability documentations have been developed and have had a direct impact on social criteria issues, but there seems to be a substantial gap in the study of social criteria in green building assessment tools. The present study aimed at introducing the subject area supported by categories to monitor social criteria in building assessment tool. In light of this argument, this paper, through analysis of frequency data and results of studies, aims to identify some potential factors that will impact building practitioners toward making the right decision for selecting and implementing social criteria in green building assessment tools. In order to organize this paper, it adopts an analytic approach where social criteria would be interpreted in a new position. The aim is to identify social criteria of sustainable development to assist building practitioners in order to assess the building project and embed them toward building assessment tool to achieve sustainable development goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Iberoamericana de Estudios de Desarrollo is the property of Revista Iberoamericana de Estudios de Desarrollo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Highlights • There is a need for a systematic approach for compact and green cities. • Concepts from smart growth and green infrastructure are found to be compatible. • We developed a hierarchical target system for smart-compact-green cities. • The targets cover smart environment, multifunctionality, government, governance. • The systemic framework can be used for spatial monitoring and planning analysis. Abstract In contrast to the ongoing worldwide uncontrolled expansion of urban development resulting in sprawled cities, compact cities have been argued by planners and researchers to be the more sustainable urban form. However, in compact cities, it has been shown that a low proportion of green spaces jeopardizes the sufficient supply of urban ecosystem services. This suggests that there remains a deficiency in clear visions for operationalizing compact and green cities. To remediate this, this paper introduces a systemic conceptual framework for compact and green cities by combining the concepts of smart growth and green infrastructure. The indicator-based, smart-compact-green city framework includes two aspects: 1) smart compact cities (considering the need to limit urban sprawl through smart growth) and 2) smart green cities (reflecting the preservation and (re-)development of urban green infrastructure). The paper suggests that there is the need to balance these two aspects to develop a systemic approach towards smart-compact-green cities. A hierarchical target system grounded on four characters for smart compact and smart green cities is developed. Smart-compact-green cities can be characterized through a 1) smart environment of compact and green cities, 2) smart multifunctionality of compact and green cities (economic, social, environmental), 3) smart government for compact and green cities and 4) smart governance for compact and green cities. The characters comprise twelve factors defined by 39 indicators for smart compact cities and 44 indicators for smart green cities, respectively. The systemic framework can support researchers and practitioners to develop visions of how existing or future cities can approach smart-compact-green cities in mainstreaming the ecology of and for cities by better understanding the complexity of urban systems and providing a basis for a systematic spatial monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is a concept which has not yet been uniquely defined at the international level. As a result, it is difficult to define the indicators which could "measure" the achievement of sustainability. The paper deals with organic agriculture as a commonly used indicator of sustainable agricultural development. The organic farming in Serbia is legally a well-regulated area, but still not developed to the necessary and possible extent. Following the practice of the most developed countries, the area under organic production is distinguished as one of the indicators in the National List of Indicators for Sustainable Development of the Republic of Serbia. Nowadays, organic farming occupies only about 0.45% of total UAA in Serbia (approx 15,000 ha), which is relatively low in comparison with the EU countries. Therefore, the development of Serbian agriculture cannot be assessed as sustainable. Although the authors of this paper support the use of organic agriculture as an indicator of agricultural sustainability, they endorse it in conjunction with other indicators in the matter, whenever possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green infrastructures are now considered key elements in improving residents' quality of life and creating an appropriate framework for the development of sustainable cities. One of the most efficient method to evaluate the state and performance of urban green infrastructure is using different types of indicators. The indicators for evaluating the benefits, ecosystem services and the role of green infrastructures for the process of sustainable development represent important tools for decision and policy makers. Indicators provide information that can be easily interpreted by decision and policy makers and they facilitate the process of planning, monitoring and evaluation of green infrastructure in urban areas. The focus of our study is to establish which indicators are used for underlining the structural and functional diversity of urban green infrastructures. This paper aims to highlight the indicators and indices being used in Romanian urban areas for measuring their sustainability that include green infrastructures, in the wider understanding of the concept. Throughout the paper, different examples of indicators and indices are provided, emphasizing that by using the proper set of indicators and indices, city authorities can tag a sustainable development label for certain areas. However, an unbiased assessment using some sets of indicators and indices are not always providing unbiased or realistic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism represents the fastest growing branch of economy, which is focused on the realization of economic effects. In the previous period of tourism development, no account was taken of natural resources and the environment. Contemporary trends indicate the existence of a growing demand for preserved natural resources and ecologically clean environment. This trend has caused sustainable tourism development, which will establish a positive relationship between the tourism development and the preservation of the environment. This paper presents the fundamentals of sustainable tourism development. Serbia's mountain areas have a preserved potential of natural resources and the environment, which are the basis for the development of sustainable tourism. The aim of paper is to analyze the previous tourism development of mountain tourist destinations in Serbia, such as Kopaonik and Tara. The indicators of sustainable tourism are tested in this paper, and the results will show whether the previous tourism development in these areas was sustainable or unsustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, transportation authorities are keen to implement sustainable development measures and to move toward a more sustainable mobility for people and goods. However, this implementation entails a rise in the need for a sustainable development assessment framework for mobility, in order to compare different projects or to monitor a given area. This paper addresses the issue of conceptualization and standardization of the evaluation of sustainable development in transportation, by proposing a framework, which seeks to meet the various needs of transportation planners. This framework aims to provide an exhaustive view of the sustainability features (through its three main dimensions), as well as to clarify the concept of sustainability in transportation by embedding links between actions and impacts. This paper presents the basis of the framework developed as an interactive tool: (1) a representation named 'Octopus' categorizing the impact of mobility on the three dimensions of sustainable development and (2) a circular representation, named 'Causal circle', which integrates causal links between actions and impacts on these same dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the urban context, heritage conservation has been acknowledged as fundamental for sustainable development. This paper address the need to develop methodologies that enable understanding of the dynamics between these two fields that for long were regarded as opposing practices. The research crosses disciplinary boundaries through a mixed methodology that identifies 27 urban development common indicators as factors that are affecting the conservation of 69World Heritage Cities (WHC). Indicators, which were selected from global urban monitoring tools, were analyzed within UNESCO State-of-Conservation reporting system. Results reveal key trends on urban factors assessed as a SWOT analysis in relation to the management of WHC. We argue that urban indicators can facilitate the understanding of development impacts in cultural heritage conservation, across the social, economic, and environmental dimensions. This paper contributes to the debate on the ability of indicators to bridge interdisciplinary and methodological issues that were related to common conceptualizations between urban development and heritage conservation and sustainability. The conceptual approach that is presented has proven to offer an empirical basis for a monitoring practice that fosters the sustainable management of urban heritage, which in the light of the New Development Agenda and the gaps in the state-of-the-art, is very much needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ratings are an increasingly popular part of urban sustainability governance and are widely understood as tools to guide policy and ensure transparency. This understanding is part of a more general shift in governance towards “New Public Management” that emphasizes public accountability and the accuracy of quantitative metrics and technical knowledge in policy evaluation. But critics have assessed ratings as broader mechanisms of governmentality, through which authorities shape, instrumentalize, and control conduct, and promote particular urban trajectories, in politicized ways. This paper examines STAR Communities, a recently developed urban sustainability rating system in the USA, to understand how such ratings behave at the interface of knowledge and policy, and how seeking transparency through ratings can produce unexpected outcomes that evade sustainability. This paper is not a critique of a specific rating system or set of indicators, but does yield a critique of the kinds of unexpected outcomes that are possible when we privilege quantitative measures of achievement. The study finds: 1) ratings are often used as labels rather than as policy inputs; 2) ratings can exacerbate existing inequalities and create new inequalities within and between municipalities because, while ratings can bring financial benefits, certification demands significant financial and political resources; and, 3) ratings can incentivize the realignment of governance priorities, as cities ‘grab’ points by pursuing quickly implemented, uncontroversial, and politically ‘safe’ policies and programs. The study also finds that sustainability managers continue to pursue quantitative sustainability measurement because of dominant assumptions that ‘counting is what counts’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability concerns have increasingly gained importance among organizations and their stakeholders around the world. In this context, eco-efficiency has become a consistent tool towards the transition to sustainable development and the efforts of eco-efficiency indicators have been used for comparative studies and decision-making tasks, providing better financial, environmental, and social performance. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review on the theme of sustainable development from the perspective of eco-efficiency, with the adaptation of the Knowledge Development Process intervention instrument - constructivist (ProKnow-C). The paper identifies and structures the state-of-the-art between Eco-Efficiency and Sustainable Development with a view to: (i) selecting a Bibliographic Portfolio (BP) that is aligned with the perception of the researchers on the theme; (ii) performing a bibliometric analysis of the selected BP; (iii) performing a thematic synthesis; (iv) finding the integration of eco-efficiency and sustainable development with other approaches; (v) proposing an innovative framework to achieve sustainable development through eco-efficiency indicators; and (vi) finding paths for further research. This research makes multiple new contributions, providing both academics and practitioners a better panorama to achieve sustainable development through eco-efficiency by expanding the literature review, highlighting the synergies and barriers between eco-efficiency and sustainable development and by comparing and analysing them, showing its relevant features. In addition, we synthesized the contributions of the BP according to the BASF indicators, sustainable dimensions and four measurement levels: industry, organization, project and process to better describe the current academic scenario on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2018 European bioeconomy strategy sets a new vision for Europe's sustainable development: a transition to regenerative resource usage that embraces circular principles. Similarly, various member states have developed national bioeconomy strategies. To be effective, such strategies require methodologically sound monitoring tools that support the alignment of national and urban policies. Indeed, cities are central to the bioeconomy, mobilizing ever increasing amounts of biogenic materials. To better understand the suitability of national bioeconomy strategies for guiding urban circular bioeconomy transitions, this paper examines the composition, features, and topical coverage of national bioeconomy indicator sets with a threefold analysis: (1) assessment of the integration of circularity principles in the sets and their alignment with existing policy frameworks; (2) appraisal of quality and the fulfillment of the sets' functional purposes; (3) evaluation of the breadth and depth of tackled issues. Of the 27 EU member states, only nine have a dedicated bioeconomy strategy, of which four propose an indicator set. While there is a general lack of sophisticated monitoring, the tools proposed after the publication of the 2018 bioeconomy strategy (Germany and Italy) follow indicator development standards rigorously. They include circularity in their notion of bioeconomy and combine indicators for a comprehensive, substantial, informative and politically relevant analysis. These characteristics strongly improve the potential for alignment and coherence with urban-level bioeconomy monitoring efforts. Although national measuring tools are not intended to cover all urban needs, the findings of this paper give insight into their remaining gaps and highlight improvement pathways for an efficient EU-wide circular bioeconomy transition. [Display omitted] • Most EU national bioeconomy strategies lack sophisticated indicator sets. • National bioeconomy strategies should favor alignment with other policy levels. • Thoroughly developed indicator sets allow targeted answers to environmental change. • Recent strategies follow indicator development standards more rigorously. • Recent indicator sets enable monitoring of urban circular bioeconomy transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• There is high consistency in the extent of land degradation. • There are consistent hydrothermal change characteristics in the land degradation hotspots area. Land degradation is a major impediment to achieving sustainable development. However, there is currently no harmonized global map of land degradation status and hotspots. This paper aims to obtain the status and hotspots map of global land degradation by multiple methods and indicators to give essential references for land degradation neutrality. The results show that there are significant differences in the distribution and degree of land degradation between the different methods and indicators. Validation through observation points reveals that most of the methods and indicators can reflect land degradation in arid and semi-arid areas, while there are suitable methods or indicators in tropical and high-latitude areas. The degree of degradation has a large difference after overlay analysis, which shows that there are shortcomings of different methods and indicators for monitoring the degree of land degradation. However, the overlay of land degradation extent displays a high consistency, reflecting the current state of global land degradation to a certain extent. These areas with high overlay value can be recognized as hotspots of land degradation. It is also found there are consistent water-energy change characteristics in the hotspot area, such as increased land surface temperature and air temperature and decreased soil moisture and precipitation. These results conclude that studies on the degree of land degradation need to be considered in an integrated manner about the regional background. The combination of multiple methods and indicators is recommended for land degradation extent studies in large areas. Comparison of different methods and indicators is important guidance for global land degradation research. Accelerating ecological monitoring and restoration of land degradation hotspots is the first step towards land degradation neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is a concept which has not yet been uniquely defined at the international level. As a result, it is difficult to define the indicators which could 'measure' the achievement of sustainability. The paper deals with organic agriculture as a commonly used indicator of sustainable agricultural development. The organic farming in Serbia is legally a well-regulated area, but still not developed to the necessary and possible extent. Following the practice of the most developed countries, the area under organic production is distinguished as one of the indicators in the National List of Indicators for Sustainable Development of the Republic of Serbia. Nowadays, organic farming occupies only about 0.45% of total UAA in Serbia (approx 15,000 ha), which is relatively low in comparison with the EU countries. Therefore, the development of Serbian agriculture cannot be assessed as sustainable. Although the authors of this paper support the use of organic agriculture as an indicator of agricultural sustainability, they endorse it in conjunction with other indicators in the matter, whenever possible.

Frugal innovation can help to foster sustainability and address global challenges, like building economic growth, addressing various social needs, and protecting the environment. However, if one wants to measure the sustainability impacts of frugal innovation or enable companies to make empirically informed decisions between frugal and alternative innovation, the question of how to assess these empirical impacts arises. The main objectives of this paper are the identification of approaches and indicators for assessing the sustainability impacts of frugal innovation and the analysis of empirical findings relating to prior assessments. To this end, a systematic literature review was conducted, which identified 15 texts, and a qualitative content analysis was employed to evaluate their contents. From these analyses two main approaches for assessment emerged. First, the assessment based on the triple bottom line or the dimensions of sustainability (ecological, social, and economic). Second, assessment against the Sustainability Development Goals. In the identified texts, the sustainability dimensions are preferred over the Sustainable Development Goals for assessing the sustainability impacts of frugal innovation. From the 15 identified texts, 13 use qualitative indicators and two quantitative (conceptual) indicators. To answer the research question of the paper, a set of 47 qualitative indicators relating to integrated dimensions of sustainability for the assessment of the sustainability impacts of frugal innovation is proposed. In addition, this paper presents new insights relating to the empirical evidence of sustainability impacts of frugal innovation. Approximately 60% of 334 empirical findings from 70 different cases related to the Sustainable Development Goals contribute to the five (socially and economically focused) SDGs 8, 3, 10, 12, and 9. After a transformation to the Triple Bottom Line, these findings contribute predominantly to the economic and social dimensions (in each case 45%), and only slightly to the ecological dimension (the remaining 10%). In turn, 164 empirical results from 77 different cases related to the Triple Bottom Line show an almost similar contribution to all three sustainability dimensions with a small lead of the economic dimension. Nonetheless, in the opinion of the author, these findings confirm other studies, that from an empirical perspective, frugal innovation can be described as inherently socially and economically sustainable and ecological sustainability is mostly not the primary focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social housing in Serbia has been experiencing drastic transformations over the last 25 years. Although new solutions have begun to develop, they are based predominantly on various types of local supported housing provisions, insufficient in terms of supply and deprived of crucial elements of long-term sustainability. The main hypothesis of this paper is that the national system of social housing should include systemic approach and that improvement of social housing in Serbia towards sustainable development could be achieved by implementation of general criteria and specific indicators of social, economic and environmental sustainability. This paper may contribute to systemic sustainability evaluation of social housing projects in Serbia and consequently propose improvements in regulations and decision-making process, at both national and local levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Fomento Social is the property of ETEA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• Social sustainability definitions are vague, and not easily operationalised. • Aquaculture certifications address social sustainability, but it is not a focus. • Indicators focus largely on workers' rights and links back to environment. • Actions required rarely go over and above existing legal requirements. Recently we have seen a substantial increase in pressure for industries, such as aquaculture, to become more sustainable. When it comes to practical attempts to operationalise sustainable development, however, the 'social stuff' is often neglected. In this paper, we provide a detailed exploration of how the concept of social sustainability is operationalised (and therefore understood) within the aquaculture certification context. We found that a) certification schemes do address social sustainability, but relevant indicators mostly focus on workers' rights, or link directly back to environmental sustainability (through the consequences of environmental impact on humans); and b) the actions required often add little over and above existing legal requirements. Essentially, aquaculture sustainability certification schemes have not (yet) taken the opportunity to further shape our understanding of what social sustainability means, or how it is practiced. The consequence of this may be the impression that industries are truly sustainable, just because they have obtained sustainability certification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As one of the most important overhead capital of urban economics and social development, the sustainable development of urban infrastructure is becoming a key issue of prosperous society growing. The purpose of this paper is to establish a basic model to analysis certain infrastructure project's sustainable construction and operation. Design/methodology/approach: System dynamics is an effective stimulation method and tool to deal with such complex, dynamics, nonlinear systems, which could be used in analyzing and evaluating all aspects of infrastructure sustainability internally and externally. In this paper, the system is divided into four subsystems and 12 main impact indicators. Through setting the boundary and other basic hypothesis, this paper designs the basic causal loop diagrams and stock & flow diagrams to describe the relationship between variables and establish a quantifiable structure for the system. Findings: Adopting a sewerage treatment in China as a case to test our model, we could conclude that the model of internal sustainable subsystem is reasonable. However, this model is a basic model, and it need to be specific designed for the certain project due to the diversity of infrastructure types and the unique conditions of each projects. Originality/value: System Dynamics (SD) is widely used in the study of sustainable development and has plentiful research achievements from macro perspective but few studies in the microcosmic project systems. This paper focuses on the unique characteristics of urban infrastructure in China and selects infrastructure project which is based on micro-system discussion. The model we designed has certain practical significance in policy setting, operation monitoring and adjustment of the urban projects with high rationality and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The semiconductor industry plays an ever-increasing role in society, providing microelectronic components called chips that are used in a wide variety of electronic applications. The rapid increase of the production of chips is responsible for considerable effects on the environment during the different phases of their life cycle. In spite of increasing pressure from stakeholders to control these effects, no international standard or agreement has yet been established. In this context, the paper proposes a set of environmental indicators that take into account the most serious damages induced by these products. To establish an exhaustive list of indicators, the specificities of the semiconductor branch are first analysed in literature, identifying pressures on the sector coming from the downstream chain – chip buyers and users – and finally by analysing data from industrial case studies. In order to highlight the most significant direct and indirect impacts, each aspect of the chips' life cycle phases is studied independently. The indicators reflect the particularities of the industry and point out the major impact categories. They can be therefore be used for standardized environmental analysis of microelectronic products. The paper retains seven environmental indicators: resource depletion, eutrophication, water stress, toxicity, summer smog and local electrical consumption. The final set of indicators will help draw the environmental profile of the microelectronic chips over the full life cycle of the products. It is a step towards necessary standardization in the microelectronic industry. The indicators are consistent with current state of the art and can evolve as progress is made on the definition and calculation of new indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our approach, Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM for short) has been developed to get out of the traditional monistic methodology. In this paper we propose a general energy accounting scheme and its indicators based on MuSIASEM framework characterizing the performance of the energy and mining sector. This represents an elaboration of the supply side of energy accounting within our scheme, a subject that has not been fully investigated so far. Section 2 briefly illustrates the fundamental limitations of purely thermodynamic approach to energy accounting. Section 3 presents a general energy accounting scheme and its derived set of indicators. This section first presents the basic assumptions and the energy transformation process using the flow–fund representation originally developed by Georgescu-Roegen. Section 4 concludes the paper providing ten mottoes about energy accounting that are justified by the experience made with the MuSIASEM scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) targets have been included as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and indictors are important to monitor progress towards these targets. SRH indicators are recommended for setting norms and measuring progress globally. However, given the diverse political, socioeconomic and cultural contexts in different countries, and lack of global agreement on broad indicators, it is important to select appropriate indicators for specific countries. Based on internationally recommended indicators and data availability in China, this paper selected four indictors to reflect SRH in China and interpreted these indictors by analyzing the underlying factors. Methods: We employed secondary data analysis and key informant interviews. Secondary data were obtained from the China Health Statistical Yearbook (2005–2017), China Statistical Yearbook (2005–2017), and the sub-national estimates of the Global Burden Diseases Study 2016. We interviewed 36 key informants at national and sub-national levels. Results: The four selected SRH indicators are contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR), adolescent birth rate, abortion rate, and availability of school sex education. CPR of married women has remained above 75% over the last three decades, indicating a high level of access to family planning (FP) services; however, unmarried but sexually active women have significant unmet needs for FP services. Although adolescent birth rates in China remain low, the abortion rate, abortion numbers, and the ratio of abortions to births increased from 2014 to 2016 while FP policy was relaxed. This suggests that abortion among unmarried women is a significant contributor to overall figures. Qualitative analysis of the availability of school sex education, reveals an absence of policy due to conservative attitudes of key stakeholders. Conclusion: Since SRH challenges vary significantly between contexts, indicators for measuring progress towards SRH targets should be selected based on country context. The CPR and abortion rate are currently available and important indicators to monitor the most basic part of SRH in China, but require modification to ensure they reflect universal access to quality reproductive healthcare by all reproductive age women, regardless of their marriage status. Policy and indicators on sex education need to be carefully developed to fit the context in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is currently trying to implement activities that will contribute to achieving sustainable development. Therefore, questions arise about how to comprehensively assess the impact of undertaken actions on sustainable development, their effective measurement and extraction of relevant information that will help in making even better decisions on sustainable development. Due to the fact that many efforts have been made to promote, implement and maintain an appropriate level of sustainable development, the very process of assessing sustainable development is now becoming increasingly important. However, the problem arises which type of assessment tool may be more beneficial to measure selected aspects of sustainable development and where to find the necessary knowledge about it. This paper proposes an extendable knowledge model to assess sustainability more comprehensively and to capture interrelationships across the multiple measures, frameworks, indicators and other approaches to measure sustainability. The need for extension of SA is resulted for two reasons, the obvious need to update the methodological approaches contained in the knowledge base and the need to increase the practical possibilities of the model by including relevant datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a methodology for the analysis of the sustainability of thermoelectric plants with a highlight on the isolated system in the Amazon, in the state of Rondônia, Brasil. The document describes the indicators for the constructions of a general indicator of sustainability that allows the classification of micro-networks with thermoelectrics according to their environmental, social and, economic contributions. In this study we use official data and polls made to the electric distribution companies. The model proposed in this paper contributes to the definition of policies for the control of greenhouse gases, mitigation of risks, new technologies development and, the distribution of public resources for alternative energy sources research. This research project was developed by the Research Group on Renewable and Sustainable Energy of the Universidade Federal de Rondônia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper focuses on the use and influence of indicators in European sustainable transport policy from a ‘knowledge utilization’ research point of view. The starting point is the contrast between the widely held idea that indicators are important tools for sustainable transport policy making, versus ‘knowledge utilization’ oriented research, which has often demonstrated that formal technical knowledge is used much less, or at least differently, than expected in policy and decision making. The paper looks at two cases of indicators applied for strategic policy making within the sustainable transport agenda. The first case concerns indicators tracking the fulfillment of national transport policy objectives in Sweden. The case explores the use and influence of an annual monitoring and evaluation report produced for this purpose, within a general ‘Management-by-Objectives’ regime. The second case deals with indicators applied for the Mid-Term Review of the European Commission's transport policy White Paper ‘Time to Decide’ (issued in 2001). The focus in this case is on a particular indicator based study conducted in 2005 by a group of consultants in close collaboration with European Commission staff. It is found that several indicators in both cases are actually used in policy processes, with evidence of use found in documents as well as interviews. However, ‘use’ does not automatically mean ‘influence’ on policies or processes in more than a superficial manner. Indicators seem to play a very limited direct instrumental role, while some signs of symbolic, conceptual and process roles are found. In the EU case we identify what is called a rationalization role of indicators, meaning that indicators inform and help to rationalize a change in the position towards key objectives. Several factors that characterize the indicators, the users, and policy context are found to contribute to understand the type of use and influence observed in both cases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The United Nations explicitly recognise the central role of urbanization processes in global development trajectories in the Agenda 2030, mainly through one of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, i.e. SDG11. This goal emphasises making human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The progress achieved towards the targets that articulate this goal is constantly monitored through a system of indicators. However, this process is complex, especially for those targets that concern the quality of the policies intended to guide development phenomena. This is the case with SDG11.a, which aims to «Support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning» and therefore regards territorial governance activities. In a recent contribution, the authors explored the contents and implications of SDG11.a and developed a system of procedural, instrumental, and financial indicators aimed at evaluating the quality of territorial governance. This paper operationalises some of these indicators concerning a real territorial context – the Metropolitan City of Turin – to reflect on their practicability and the added value they can provide in decision-making and monitoring. The work results show how any measurement of the quality of territorial governance remains inherently linked to the institutional characteristics of the context and the actual availability of data and information. This undoubtedly complicates the use of the indicators proposed in a comparative perspective; however, their application can promote critical reflections by public authorities and the development of more effective policies. Il ruolo centrale dei processi di urbanizzazione nelle traiettorie di sviluppo globale è esplicitamente riconosciuto dall’Agenda 2030 delle Nazioni Unite che, attraverso uno dei suoi 17 obiettivi per lo sviluppo sostenibile (SDG11), sottolinea la necessità di rendere gli insediamenti umani più inclusivi, sicuri, resilienti e sostenibili. I progressi raggiunti in relazione ai traguardi che articolano tale obiettivo sono costantemente monitorati attraverso un sistema di indicatori. Questo processo non è però semplice, soprattutto in relazione a quei traguardi che non riguardano tanto i fenomeni di sviluppo, quanto la qualità delle politiche deputate ad orientarli. È il caso del traguardo SDG11.a, che mira a «supportare i positivi legami economici, sociali e ambientali tra aree urbane, periurbane e rurali rafforzando la pianificazione dello sviluppo nazionale e regionale», e dunque concerne l’attività di governo del territorio. In un recente contributo, gli autori hanno esplorato i contenuti e le implicazioni del traguardo SDG11.a e sviluppato un sistema di indicatori – procedurali, strumentali e finanziari – finalizzato a valutare la qualità del governo del territorio in un determinato contesto. Il presente articolo operazionalizza alcuni di questi indicatori rispetto a un contesto territoriale reale – la Città Metropolitana di Torino – così da riflettere sulla loro praticabilità e sul valore aggiunto che essi possono fornire in sede di decisione e monitoraggio. Dai risultati del lavoro si evince come qualsiasi misura- zione della qualità del governo del territorio rimanga intrinsecamente legata alle caratteristiche istituzionali del contesto di riferimento e alla effettiva reperibilità di dati e informazioni. Se questo complica l’utilizzo degli indicatori proposti in ottica comparativa, la loro applicazione può però favorire lo sviluppo di riflessioni critiche da parte delle autorità pubbliche e la messa a punto di politiche più efficaci.

Sustainable development is a concept which has not yet been uniquely defined at the international level. As a result, it is difficult to define the indicators which could "measure" the achievement of sustainability. The paper deals with organic agriculture as a commonly used indicator of sustainable agricultural development. The organic farming in Serbia is legally a well-regulated area, but still not developed to the necessary and possible extent. Following the practice of the most developed countries, the area under organic production is distinguished as one of the indicators in the National List of Indicators for Sustainable Development of the Republic of Serbia. Nowadays, organic farming occupies only about 0.45% of total UAA in Serbia (approx 15,000 ha), which is relatively low in comparison with the EU countries. Therefore, the development of Serbian agriculture cannot be assessed as sustainable. Although the authors of this paper support the use of organic agriculture as an indicator of agricultural sustainability, they endorse it in conjunction with other indicators in the matter, whenever possible

The paper is structured in five parts. The first part is a brief presentation of the structure and the functioning of the urban transport systems using electrically driven trams (EUTS), based on which, the equivalent reliability diagrams of these systems are presented. Further on, based on the analysis of operational reliability, one can identify and there are defined the time characteristics and the transport capacity of EUTS. In the third part there are defined and analytically determined the safety and the availability of EUTS. The paper also contains results of a comprehensive study of case on EUTS from Oradea, results on which one can calculate, in the end, the availability indicators of the system. The last part of the paper contains the results and conclusions of the carried out analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Iran is among the top ten CO 2 emitters in the world. • Achieving sustainable development undermined by heavy reliance on fossil fuels. • Environmental indicators are not consistent with the society and the economy. • However, improving the social indices strengthens the environmental indicators. • Altering the environmental subsystem resulted in convergence of sustainable system. Abstract Iran is among the top ten CO 2 emitters in the world and has pledged to reduce such emissions by up to 12 percent by 2030 through various policies and strategies. However, achieving this is somewhat undermined by the country's heavy reliance on fossil fuels which contributes to environmental pollution and depletion of natural resources. It is therefore important to have an understanding of the economic, social, and environmental subsystems and their interactions in order to formulate a suitable development path or model. Due to the lack of comprehensive studies on the current situation and the dynamics among these variables, this paper provides a multi-stage analysis of the issues based on data from 1992 to 2015 to construct the principal component analysis (PCA) combined index for each subsystem. Then, the interactions among the subsystems are investigated over the short- and long-terms using the vector autoregressive (VAR) model. The results of the PCA show that Iran lacks a balanced sustainable development approach as improvements in environmental indicators do not match those of the society and the economy indices. Further, the associated time path for the economic and societal indices depicts an increasing trend over time, especially in the economy index and that, since 2010, this subsystem has overtaken the societal index. Estimations of the VAR model, impulse response functions, and variance decomposition analysis show that the country's economic development has seriously undermined the environment even as improving the social indices has strengthened the environmental indicators. The interactions among subsystems show that economic development of the country took little consideration of environmental issues. This is the main reason for the backwardness of the environmental indices and its divergence from economic and societal indices. It is clear that assuming equal rates of growth for all subsystems have not produced a balanced development path. For Iran to achieve her sustainable development goals there should be increased focus on the environmental subsystem with the overall system converging symmetrically when the high growth rate assumption (double) is applied for this index compared with the societal and economical indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable urban development is a subject of interest for regional policy makers and it needs appropriate assessment based on futile instruments for research, and for practical reasonsl (planning and decision making). Even if the sustainability's attainment is a research topic field for academia and urban planners and managers and, as well, an ambitious goal for any resource administrator, yet there is no precise way of defining and measuring it. The sustainability of the urban development policy implies multiple and diversified aspects from rational exploitation of the local resources and well-structured workforce to environmental issues, endowment of modern urban facilities and infrastructure elements. As the urban sustainability is measured using a multitude of basic indicators, needing proper information to make long term management decision and planning, the subject is treated with fuzzy setsseen as an appropriate manner to deal with ambiguity, subjectivity and imprecision in the human reasoning when processing large volumes of data, eventually unstructured and complex. The paper proposed a modeling approach based on fuzzy sets inspired by the SAFE (Sustainability Assessment by Fuzzy Evaluation), a model which provides a mechanism for measuring development sustainability. The papers intends presenting a quantitative methodology in assessing the potential sustainability of urban development (in terms of adequacy) by pointing the failures in pursuing trends that are associated to a robust growth in the urban areas. The advantages of such approach are derived from taking into account the multi-criteria and uncertainty facets of the phenomenon; also, having in mind that the sustainability remains a non-straight-cut concept, being vaguely defined it implies a non-deterministic character by using the fuzzy set logic. The proposed model is designed to assess the divergence from desired trajectories, the weak point in reaching indicators' target (as they are commonly regardedd as appropriate in what is understood as a good practices), it may then be addressed for policy makers in indicating some action measures in urban administration as they intendenly strive towards increasingly sustainable development on the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability is the comprehensive paradigm on the basis of which it is possible to assess the perspectives of future evolution of all anthropogenic activities, including energy system exploitation and relations with the environment. This paper discusses some conceptual aspects concerning the many components that must be taken into account in order to address sustainability issues properly. These components belong to different fields of knowledge and application, ranging from technical and economic issues to a wider set of entries including production organization and quality, risk management, ecology, social, equity and diversity issues. Energy efficiency and climate change concepts are recalled to provide indications on the current status and envisioned perspectives in the corresponding areas. The discussion is then widened to address the critical points emerging in the definition of sustainability indicators. Specific references are made to recent scientific papers and regulatory documents of the European Union and various international organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, numerous indicators and indicator sets for sustainable agriculture and sustainable land management have been proposed. In addition to their interest in comparing different management systems on an indicator by indicator basis, land managers are often interested in comparing individual indicators against a threshold, or, in order to study trade-offs, against each other. To this end it is necessary to (1) transform the original indicators into a comparable format, and (2) score these transformed indicators against a sustainability function. This paper introduces an evaluation method for land-use-related impact indicators, which was designed to accomplish these tasks. It is the second of a series of two papers, and as such it links into a larger framework for sustainability assessment of land use systems. The evaluation scheme introduced here comprises (1) a standardisation procedure, which aims at making different indicators comparable. In this procedure indicators are first normalised, by referencing them to the total impact they contribute towards, and then they are corrected by a factor describing the severity of this total impact in terms of exceeding a threshold. The procedure borrows conceptually from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Impact Analysis methodology; (2) a valuation procedure, which judges the individual standardised indicators with regard to sustainability. This methodology is then tested on an indicator set for the environmental impact of a spinach production system in Northwest Germany. The method highlights mineral resource consumption, greenhouse gas emission, eutrophication and impacts on soil quality as the most important environmental effects of the studied system. We then explore the effect of introducing weighting factors, reflecting the differing societal perception of diverse environmental issues. Two different sets of weighting factors are used. The influence of weighting is, however, small compared to that of the standardisation procedure introduced earlier. Finally, we explore the propagation of uncertainty (defined as a variable''s 95% confidence limits) throughout the standardisation procedure using a stochastic simulation approach. The uncertainty of the analysed standardised indicator was higher than that of the non-standardised indicators by a factor of 2.0 to 2.5. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Multidimensional crisis phenomena (financial–economic, environmental and social), plaguing the international community, especially in the last 30 years, have intensified resentment towards traditional models of growth and socio-economic development. The European Commission has placed the idea of a green economy (GE) at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy. This paper presents an assessment of the implementation of the green economy assumptions in EU countries in 2018, taking 2010 as the base year. Using taxonomic methods, a synthetic evaluation index (GEI—Green Economy Index) was constructed based on a multi-criterion set of 27 indicators. This paper attempts to answer the following questions: How green are the European economies? What are the main challenges in this context? The average value of the index for the EU countries decreased in the studied years from 0.3423 to 0.3294, which can be interpreted as a slowdown in the greening processes. The key recommendations for the upcoming years include the improvement of energy efficiency indicators, the further increase in the share of renewable energy sources in the energy balance. Moreover, a significant problem continues to be the high percentage of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion, as well as low CO2 and resource productivity rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although inequalities in income and expenditure are relatively well researched, comparatively little attention has been paid, to date, to inequalities in resource use. This is clearly a shortcoming when it comes to developing informed policies for sustainable consumption and social justice. This paper describes an indicator of inequality in resource use called the AR-Gini. The AR-Gini is an area-based measure of resource inequality that estimates inequalities between neighbourhoods with regard to the consumption of specific consumer goods. It is also capable of estimating inequalities in the emissions resulting from resource use, such as carbon dioxide emissions from energy use, and solid waste arisings from material resource use. The indicator is designed to be used as a basis for broadening the discussion concerning ‘food deserts’ to inequalities in other types of resource use. By estimating the AR-Gini for a wide range of goods and services we aim to enhance our understanding of resource inequalities and their drivers, identify which resources have highest inequalities, and to explore trends in inequalities. The paper describes the concepts underlying the construction of the AR-Gini and its methodology. Its use is illustrated by pilot applications (specifically, men''s and boys'' clothing, carpets, refrigerators/freezers and clothes washer/driers). The results illustrate that different levels of inequality are associated with different commodities. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of some possible policy implications of the AR-Gini. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of my paper is to demonstrate that Sen''s theory of well-being can be applied to make the concept of sustainable human development operational through the building of a multidimensional index of sustainability which takes into account, at the same time, economic, social and environmental variables. This index may be considered an alternative to the current measures of welfare/sustainability since not only conventional measures such as GDP, but also multi-attribute indices, such as Human Development Index (HDI), Genuine Savings, Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) etc., are found to be inadequate to make the concept of sustainable development operational. Therefore, the limitations of these measures of welfare/sustainability justify the search for a new index of sustainability. This index will show, at the operational level, how Sen''s theory of well-being can be useful to sustainable development. It was applied to EU countries using the standardised deviation methodology being the closest and most suitable methodology to be adopted for building multidimensional indices. The factor analysis methodology will also be used in my paper. Lastly, the comparison between Sen''s trend of sustainability and GDP trend index number–which are both of them applied to Italy–will show how much the criticisms and the limitations directed towards the indicator of GDP are founded. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recognising the well-known limitations of economic growth as a litmus test of progress and the call by Target 19 of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 to "develop measurements on progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product", this paper advances understanding of the linkages between alternative measures of economic well-being, the well-being economy and the SDGs. A conceptual model is presented, linking four capital assets to well-being goals and domains, which are connected to related SDGs. An assessment is conducted on the extent to which Gross Domestic Product and five alternative indicators of economic well-being (Environmentally Adjusted Net Domestic Product, Measure of Economic Welfare, Genuine Savings, Genuine Progress Indicator and Inclusive Wealth Index) align with (a) the dimensions of economic well-being, and (b) various environmental, economic, social and institutional targets set by the SDGs. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is found to be the most comprehensive in coverage, accounting for market-based welfare, services from essential capital, and various environmental and social costs, and linking directly to targets in fourteen of the seventeen SDGs. The paper discusses how greater use of alternative measures of economic well-being by policymakers can encourage transitions to economies which prioritise well-being and desirability objectives. • Conceptual model of wellbeing economy presented – capital asset classes, domains and goals. • Alternative measures of economic wellbeing have far greater linkages to SDGs than GDP. • Genuine Progress Indicator most closely aligned with SDG targets. • Alternative measures of economic wellbeing can promote policy initiatives with SDG benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism represents the fastest growing branch of economy, which is focused on the realization of economic effects. In the previous period of tourism development, no account was taken of natural resources and the environment. Contemporary trends indicate the existence of a growing demand for preserved natural resources аnd ecologically clean environment. This trend has caused sustainable tourism development, which will establish a positive relationship between the tourism development and the preservation of the environment. This paper presents the fundamentals of sustainable tourism development. Serbias mountain areas have a preserved potential of natural resources and the environment, which are the basis for the development of sustainable tourism. The aim of paper is to analyze the previous tourism development of mountain tourist destinations in Serbia, such as Kopaonik and Tara. The indicators of sustainable tourism are tested in this paper, and the results will show whether the previous tourism development in these areas was sustainable or unsustainable.

Sustainability is one of the world's fundamental objectives, and a wide variety of information types, parameters, and uncertainties need to be appraised and managed to assess it. In the present paper, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is used to prioritise the criteria of sustainable development based on regularly published indicators. In line with most approaches in the literature, the main criteria are Economy, Society and Environment. Complex criteria are decomposed into subcriteria until the performance with respect to them can be measured directly. Weights of importance are calculated by the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), in decision support system PriEsT. The model is flexible to both the modification of criteria and re-weighting, and the PriEsT file is supplemented to the paper. Moreover, the results can also be applied in decisions on resource allocation. The proposed methodology has the potential of resulting in a new composite index to measure, compare or rank countries and regions regarding sustainable development or one of its subcriteria, as well as to track, year by year, the improvements or the impact of the policies introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]