Multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessment of farming systems

Sustainability assessment is needed to build sustainable farming systems. A broad range of sustainability concepts, methodologies and applications already exists. They differ in level, focus, orientation, measurement, scale, presentation and intended end-users. In this paper we illustrate that a sma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental impact assessment review 2012-01, Vol.32 (1), p.170-180
Main Authors: Van Passel, Steven, Meul, Marijke
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural production
AGRICULTURE
Assessments
Construction
End users
End-user groups
Environmental economics
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Evaluation
Farming
Farming systems
FARMS
Guidelines
LAND USE
Methodology
MOTIFS
Multidimensional analysis
Multilevel
Policies
RECOMMENDATIONS
Scale analysis
Sustainability
Sustainability assessment
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Sustainable value
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Summary:Sustainability assessment is needed to build sustainable farming systems. A broad range of sustainability concepts, methodologies and applications already exists. They differ in level, focus, orientation, measurement, scale, presentation and intended end-users. In this paper we illustrate that a smart combination of existing methods with different levels of application can make sustainability assessment more profound, and that it can broaden the insights of different end-user groups. An overview of sustainability assessment tools on different levels and for different end-users shows the complementarities and the opportunities of using different methods. In a case-study, a combination of the sustainable value approach (SVA) and MOTIFS is used to perform a sustainability evaluation of farming systems in Flanders. SVA is used to evaluate sustainability at sector level, and is especially useful to support policy makers, while MOTIFS is used to support and guide farmers towards sustainability at farm level. The combined use of the two methods with complementary goals can widen the insights of both farmers and policy makers, without losing the particularities of the different approaches. To stimulate and support further research and applications, we propose guidelines for multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessments. ► We give an overview of sustainability assessment tools for agricultural systems. ► SVA and MOTIFS are used to evaluate the sustainability of dairy farming in Flanders. ► Combination of methods with different levels broadens the insights of different end-user groups. ► We propose guidelines for multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessments.
ISSN:0195-9255
1873-6432
DOI:10.1016/j.eiar.2011.08.005