A critical review of reductionist approaches for assessing the progress towards sustainability

The increasing prominence of Sustainable Development as a policy objective has initiated a debate on appropriate frameworks and tools that will both provide guidance for a shift towards sustainability as well as a measure, preferably quantitative, of that shift. Sustainability assessment has thus th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental impact assessment review 2008-05, Vol.28 (4), p.286-311
Main Authors: Gasparatos, Alexandros, El-Haram, Mohamed, Horner, Malcolm
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biophysical models
Composite sustainability index
ECOLOGY
ECONOMICS
Environmental economics
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS
Environmental impact studies
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
EVALUATION
Monetary tools
PLANNING
Reductionism
REVIEWS
SEAS
Stakeholder
Strategic planning
Sustainability
Sustainability assessment
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Urban planning
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Summary:The increasing prominence of Sustainable Development as a policy objective has initiated a debate on appropriate frameworks and tools that will both provide guidance for a shift towards sustainability as well as a measure, preferably quantitative, of that shift. Sustainability assessment has thus the challenging task of capturing, addressing and suggesting solutions for a diverse set of issues that affect stakeholders with different values and span over different spatial and temporal scales. However sustainability assessment is still not a mature framework in the sense that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) are. This paper aims to provide suggestions for improving the sustainability evaluation part of a sustainability assessment. In particular it will provide a comprehensive review of different sustainability evaluation tools (from a reductionist perspective) as well as the feasibility of incorporating them within a sustainability assessment framework. Reviewed tools include monetary tools, biophysical models and sustainability indicators/composite indices that have been developed within different disciplines such as economics, statistics, ecology, engineering and town planning.
ISSN:0195-9255
1873-6432
DOI:10.1016/j.eiar.2007.09.002