The role of common local indicators in regional sustainability assessment

Sustainable development indicators (SDIs) are one of the most frequently used tools to assess sustainable development from an international to a local scale, supporting evaluation and reporting purposes. Indicators can also be particularly useful in addressing the growing need for interaction at regional and local scale in sustainability initiatives and assuring that regional assessments reflect community values, concerns and hopes. The main goal of this research is to develop a conceptual framework for common local sustainability indicators within a regional context, one that is supported by a participative approach and allows interaction between local and regional scales. Other major goals were to design the regional profile on local SDI initiatives and develop a set of common local indicators for the Algarve region – the most southerly region of Portugal. The framework is mainly supported on common strategic goals, objectives, targets, features and resources and on the existing regional and local SDI sets. A regional survey involving all municipalities was conducted to obtain data on local SDI initiatives and the regional profile was defined. By testing the framework in the Algarve, a proposed set of common local indicators was developed and presented in the survey for local authority evaluation. The main findings reveal that, despite the fact that there are still few local SDI initiatives in the Algarve region, the majority of municipalities surveyed fully agree on the importance of developing a minimum common local indicator set for the region. The role and usefulness of the proposed framework were demonstrated in the selection of 20 common local indicators for local–regional scale interaction in the Algarve. Establishing a set of common indicators on a local spatial scale can contribute to providing a coherent assessment framework, by preventing the duplication of effort, allowing local sustainability benchmarking and enhancing the analyses of asymmetries within a region.     

The sustainable neighborhoods for happiness (SNfH) decision tool: Assessing neighborhood level sustainability and happiness

The relationship between sustainability and happiness is an intriguing and growing research area (Cloutier et al., 2013; Montgomery, 2013; Florida et al., 2013; Leyden et al., 2011). However, a review of primary literature and research indicates a missing gap in neighborhood level assessments of sustainability and happiness. The Sustainable Neighborhoods for Happiness Index (SNHI) was developed using city level data and studies (Cloutier et al., 2014), but was created with the intent of serving as a neighborhood measure. Within this paper, we detail the development of the Sustainable Neighborhoods for Happiness (SNfH) Decision Tool – a neighborhood level assessment tool, derived from the SNHI, to assist in decisions around future strategies for sustainable community development. While several sustainability decision tools exist, there is a need for those that are easily understood and accessible to neighborhood stakeholders (e.g., residents, community leaders, city employees). The SNfH Decision Tool was created with a user-friendly graphical front-end and embedded back-end calculations to inform users. The goal is to help neighborhood stakeholders identify the needs of their community to swiftly take action to alleviate issues and promote a sustainable and happy future.     

Towards a dashboard of sustainability indicators for Panama: A participatory approach

The importance of pursuing sustainable modes of development has received increased global recognition in recent years. Since the issue was first addressed in the United Nations⿿ 1987 Brundtland Report, many countries have developed their own sustainability strategies. In Panama, a UNESCO Chair entitled Dialogues on Sustainability was created in 2011 by four scholarly institutions with the objective of advancing a sustainability agenda through education, research and discussion. In line with conclusions from the United Nations⿿ Agenda 21 action plan, the UNESCO Chair identified the creation of a set of national sustainability indicators as an important step toward this goal. This paper presents the work done by the Chair to develop a dashboard of national sustainability indicators for Panama. Indicators were selected using participatory methods, involving 42 individuals representing 16 different government agencies, NGOs, academic institutions, and private entities from Panama. Adhering to a three-pillar structure, the resulting dashboard of 20 indicators is shown to be a useful tool for understanding past trends, present issues, and future trajectories within Panama⿿s economic, environmental, and social spheres. As a further demonstration of the dashboard⿿s utility, this paper focuses on three example issues shown by the dashboard to be important: security, vehicles and vehicle emissions, and natural disasters. This paper also juxtaposes the Human Development Index and Ecological Footprint to compare Panama with other Latin American countries.     

Defining criteria and indicators for a sustainability label of local public services

The assessment of sustainability of public services is an important issue, especially at local level, taken into account the central role of local governments as a major public employer and provider of a diversity of services. Local governments are close to citizens and are moving faster than other public sector levels with regard to the integration of sustainability principles in their operations and strategies. A sustainability label to communicate public service performance enables to disclose information directly to service users. However, there is a dearth of research about labels addressing specific sustainability criteria for local services. The main aim of this research was the development of a conceptual framework to define a sustainability label, as a tool to assess and communicate sustainability of local public services. The approach was developed taking into account criteria of the European Union Ecolabel and indicators of the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. The ecolabel is a relatively well-known voluntary instrument in Europe and has the potential for application in public service activities and operations, but only assess the environmental component of sustainability. The Global Reporting Initiative, in particular the Sector Supplement for Public Agencies, was then used to integrate the other sustainability components. Thirty-six (36) criteria and respective indicators were adapted for the proposed sustainability label conceptual framework. A Portuguese local public service was used as an exploratory case study to test the proposed conceptual model into practice. The overall results demonstrate that few criteria were accomplished in this local public service, stressing that new practices and public policies need to be adopted to invert the current trend, especially through the application of assessment systems. This exploratory case study research has shown how useful can be a sustainability label to support local governments in evaluating and communicating the sustainability performance of their public services. This case could drive and support other government levels, including central and regional public administration, in adopting and exploring public service labels and their associated performance approaches.     

国外旅游生态效率优化与管理

旅游生态效率概念采用定量化方法对旅游业经济、环境影响进行分析,成为旅游业可持续发展评价的重要工具。基于可持续理论的旅游生态效率优化管理方案不断涌现,相关利益主体应用较多的有环境管理系统、旅游生态标签、清洁生产理念、旅游生态效率中心、21世纪地方议程等。在旅游企业日常运营中积极推动生态效率优化管理,是贯彻绿色发展理念,提高目的地旅游经济、环境绩效的一种新思路。从可持续背景下旅游生态效率优化模型入手,系统化分析了国外旅游生态效率优化管理方案的内容与特征。其中,环境管理系统在目的地层面为旅游生态效率优化设计了一套评估管理流程,旅游生态标签为目的地生态效率水平提供了可视化标志符号,21世纪地方议程为旅游可持续发展提供一致性整合方案,清洁生产理念是一种基于生态效率优化的长期战略,旅游生态效率中心作为非营利性机构有利于中小企业获得较好的环境绩效表现。国外旅游生态效率优化管理方案特征明显、设计合理、管理科学,对我国目的地旅游生态效率优化提升具有重要的借鉴作用。     

Sustainability indicators for municipalities of megacities: Integrating health,safety and environmental performance

The sustainability assessment of public sector organizations including municipalities, with a focus on the integration of health, safety, and environmental (HSE) issues in the context of sustainability performance indicators, has almost remained underexplored. Moreover, since a large number of the activities of megacities’ municipalities have directly to do with HSE issues, there seems to be a substantial gap in the study of megacities and corresponding local public administrations. The present study is aimed at developing a performance evaluation tool, supported by indicators, to monitor the HSE aspects of sustainable development in the municipalities of megacities. To put the proposed tool into practice, a set of performance evaluation indicators is proposed to be adopted in Iranian municipalities, integrated in the megacity of Tehran. The selection process was conducted by employing Delphi technique. In doing so, a 2-round questionnaire was responded by qualified experts to select the most robust indicators of HSE performance and evaluate the priority of each indicator. A total of 80 indicators were generated and grouped into 13 categories, 29 sub-categories, and 7 themes- (Health (H), Safety (S), Environment (E), Health-Safety (HS), Health-Environment (HE), Safety-Environment (SE), and Health, Safety and Environment (HSE)). Findings indicate that amongst the overall average score of the 13 categories, “Fire and emergency response” is the most important category, closely followed by “Waste”, “Transportation”, and “Natural systems” categories. Moreover, among the 7 proposed themes, the integrated “HSE theme”, nearly followed by “safety theme”, plays the most significant role in enhancing the HSE performance of sustainability in Tehran municipalities. It is concluded that in the HSE context of the megacities municipalities under scrutiny, social aspects of sustainability gain more attention in comparison with the environmental ones. Furthermore, in municipalities of megacities, the indicators related to health and safety could be considered as ‘key indicators’ and should be thus classified into independent categories so that their roles can be highlighted in the management and assessment of municipal sustainable development.     

An Entangled Model for Sustainability Indicators

Nowadays the challenge for humanity is to find pathways towards sustainable development. Decision makers require a set of sustainability indicators to know if the sustainability strategies are following those pathways. There are more than one hundred sustainability indicators but they differ on their relative importance according to the size of the locality and change on time. The resources needed to follow these sustainability indicators are scarce and in some instances finite, especially in smaller regions. Therefore strategies to select set of these indicators are useful for decision makers responsible for monitoring sustainability. In this paper we propose a model for the identification and selection of a set of sustainability indicators that adequately represents human systems. In developing this model, we applied evolutionary dynamics in a space where sustainability indicators are fundamental entities interconnected by an interaction matrix. we used a fixed interaction that simulates the current context for the city of Cuernavaca, México as an example. We were able to identify and define relevant sets indicators for the system by using the Pareto principle. In this case we identified a set of sixteen sustainability indicators with more than 80% of the total strength. This set presents resilience to perturbations. For the Tangled Nature framework we provided a manner of treating different contexts (i.e., cities, counties, states, regions, countries, continents or the whole planet), dealing with small dimensions. This model provides decision makers with a valuable tool to select sustainability indicators set for towns, cities, regions, countries, continents or the entire planet according to a coevolutionary framework. The social legitimacy can arise from the fact that each individual indicator must be selected from those that are most important for the subject community.     

The INDICARE-model – measuring and caring about participation in higher education's sustainability assessment

The implementation of sustainability in higher education has been advanced over at least the last two decades and brought sustainability assessment on the research agenda of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and sustainability science. Participatory approaches have gained increasing attention in these endeavours, but remain often vague and less addressed in sustainability assessment procedures. To fill in this gap, an indicator-based model, INDICARE, was developed that can assist in assessing participatory processes within higher education's sustainability initiatives. The objective of this paper is to introduce and discuss the model's theoretical background, its structure, applicability, and how it can broaden the perspectives on participation and sustainability assessment in the university context.Embedded in a cross-sectional qualitative research design, the model was developed in iterative stages and was presented and adjusted along six feedback loops, having been presented to 98 persons during conferences, workshops and university meetings. Inspired by biophilic ideas, transformative learning theories and participatory evaluation, INDICARE follows an ecocentric and integrative perspective that places the earth and its community at the centre of attention. A preliminary set of thirty indicators and practices, grouped in three categories of context, process, and transformation, is proposed. The assessment process itself is considered as a thought-provoking exercise rather than as a control tool and emphasizes the interplay of personal reflection and action-oriented outreach. INDICARE intends to invigorate the sustainability debate in higher education, in particular by proposing a more holistic approach to assessment that underlines experiencing the interconnectedness of human–nature relationships, combined with reflective exercises that can respond better to the call for transformation on individual and institutional level.     

Conservation efforts based on local ecological knowledge: The role of social variables in identifying environmental indicators

The incorporation of local ecological knowledge in monitoring processes has been one of the great challenges of conservation initiatives worldwide. Therefore, it is essential to use indicators as local evaluation tools of the conditions of a species in order to support conservation actions. Local populations observe the environment, climate change and the influence of these factors on the species they use. However, their observations and perceptions may vary depending on different social factors. We used as model two species of economic importance involved in sociobiodiversity product chains to evaluate the role of social variables in the identification of conservation indicators for this plants. The species studied were: Caryocar coriaceum Wittm. (locally known as pequi), and Himatanthus drasticus (Mart.) Plumel (locally known as janaguba). We also registered which indicators are perceived as the most important and what they are measuring. Our results show that the knowledge among collectors is homogeneous and that, generally, the social factors do not affect the knowledge on local indicators. Age and extraction time were factors that influenced the knowledge on climate indicators and population structure only for C. coriaceum. In the communities studied, collectors not only monitor the biological characteristics of the species, but also the environmental and climatic phenomena that are threatening the sustainability of the species. These results can help to improve our ability to manage information about natural resources, incorporating local ecological knowledge in the scientific process of evaluation and monitoring of biodiversity.     

Development of agri-environmental indicators to assess dairy farm sustainability in Quebec,Eastern Canada

Agri-environmental indicators are commonly used to assess agricultural sustainability. In North America, few are designed to be easily used by dairy farmers. As farmers assume more responsibility for managing natural resources, they play an increasingly important role in assessing sustainable agriculture. This paper describes the development of an indicator-based self-assessment tool for use at the farm level to evaluate dairy farm sustainability from an environmental standpoint. The agri-environmental indicator set was selected by using two participatory processes: the Delphi method and a focus group. The framework for developing the assessment tool consisted of six steps: (1) Defining the concept of environmental sustainability at the farm level; (2) setting up goals and principles for the assessment; (3) identifying potential indicators and selecting candidate indicators; (4) defining reference values, aggregating indicators into components, and establishing relative weights for indicators; (5) testing the candidate indicators on dairy farms, and (6) selecting the final indicator set. Six criteria were used to evaluate either the practicality or usefulness of indicators. Thirteen indicators were chosen, one of which was divided into four sub-indicators. These indicators were aggregated into four components: soil quality, cropping practices, fertilization management, and farmland management. Expert participation was the first validation of the indicator set. A compromise between feasibility, practicality, and relevance of measurement was found among indicators. When applied to 40 farms over two contrasting regions, the indicator set identified scores that differed according to production context. The tool is user-friendly and well-adapted to dairy farming systems.     

Sustainability indicator systems within urban governance: Usability analysis of sustainability indicator systems as boundary objects

While sustainability indicator systems (SIs) have proven to be valuable rational tools for improving the availability of information related to the relationship of cities and communities to natural limits, the indicators movement has achieved limited instrumental uptake in policy. This paper begins from a recognition that instrumental use of sustainability indicator systems is rare. Greater potential impact exists for SIs designed to be much more attentive to their conceptual and political values within their particular social and political context. In other words, greater attention to what has been called the governance of indicator systems, or the ways in which SIs fit as policy tools within a multilevel and multiactor governance context, is key to increasing their utility. This is particularly true given the need for decisive policy change, or even the introduction of a new development path, which is asserted within the sustainability agenda.Understanding the real and potential utility of indicator systems within multiactor governance processes, in which their roles are primarily rhetorical, conceptual and political, is facilitated by thinking about indicator systems as boundary objects, tools which open up dialogue, information sharing, learning and consensus-building across different policy boundaries: between experts and nonexperts, formal government and different nongovernment actors, higher-order governments and lower-order governments. This paper offers a comparative analysis of three sustainability indicator systems in the North American context – Vancouver's Vital Signs (Vancouver Foundation), Seattle's Happiness Initiative, and LEED-ND (US Green Building Council) – all of which have shown some success in operationalizing a new policy boundary as a means of making conceptual and political contributions to governance practices. The specific boundaries operationalized, the different approach taken by each project, and the usability demonstrated by each project at that boundary in terms of salience, legitimacy and credibility, are assessed comparatively. In general, the trajectory in design and use of ecological and sustainability indicators demonstrates an increase in appetite, aptitude and numbers of channels for use in processes of governance; however, these factors vary with the local social–political opportunity structure. This analysis presents the advances made as well as the tradeoffs evident in these cases across the gamut of different forms of usability of nongovernmental indicator systems designed for use as boundary objects, and suggests a path forward for indicator work which aims to change policy, from a governance perspective.     

Meta-performance evaluation of sustainability indicators

There are many different kinds of frameworks for evaluating environmental and sustainability performance at the organizational level (profit or not-for-profit, private or public), sectoral level (e.g. industry, transport, agriculture and tourism), and local, regional or country levels. Despite the diversity of methods and tools to measure sustainable development, indicators are one of the approaches most used. However, these tools do not usually include evaluation of the performance measurement instrument itself. The main objective of this research is to develop a conceptual framework to design and assess the effectiveness of the sustainability indicators themselves. To put the proposed tool into practice, a set of key good-practice factors and meta-performance evaluation indicators is proposed for adoption in a national case study—the national sustainable development indicators system, SIDS Portugal, and the usefulness of this methodology is demonstrated. This approach aims to evaluate how appropriate a set of sustainability indicators is and allow an evaluation of overall performance-monitoring activities and results. Stakeholder involvement is an essential component of the proposed framework. The tool developed could support continuous improvement in the performance of ongoing sustainability indicator initiatives, allowing greater guidance, objectivity and transparency in sustainability assessment processes.     

Contrasting and comparing sustainable development indicator metrics

Despite the fact that it has been well over a decade since Agenda 21 first called for sustainable development indicators, there is no consensus regarding the best approach to the design and use of SDI models. It is important, therefore, to question the effectiveness of SDIs in an effort to continue advancing sustainability.This paper addresses one aspect of this question by exploring whether our global SDI metrics are sending a clear message to guide us towards sustainable development. Six global SDI metrics are compared by relative ranking in colour coded tabular format and spatially in map format. The combined presentation of results clearly illustrates that the different metrics arrive at varying interpretations about the sustainability of nations. The degree of variability between the metrics is analyzed using correlation analysis. The variability in findings draws attention to the lack of a clear direction at the global level in how best to approach sustainable development. Canada is presented as a case study to highlight and explain the discrepancies between SDI measures.     

Developing collaborative marine turtle monitoring in the Kimberley region of northern Australia

Contemporary land and sea management – driven by community‐based planning and informed by traditional and local knowledge and scientific research – can significantly improve both biodiversity and cultural outcomes. Here, we describe the context and process of developing a boat‐based survey approach to marine turtle monitoring by Indigenous rangers using a collaborative partnership model that supports Traditional Owner aspirations and conservation objectives.     

A proposal to explore the role of sustainability indicators in local governance contexts: The case of Palmela,Portugal

The actual use of sustainability indicators and their steering potential is constrained by the particularities of governance contexts, by institutional patterns and changes, by the different interpretations of what sustainable development means and entails, and by the tensions around the main values nurturing the positions of the most relevant actors. This paper proposes a normative conceptual framework to further explore the role of sustainability indicators in local governance contexts, and applies it to the Portuguese municipality of Palmela. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of how, why and in what circumstances the processes of developing and using indicators can be important steering mechanisms for governance for sustainability, particularly at the local level. The methods used include primary literature review and official documents and data, interviews to local public officers and qualitative analysis. Palmela provides insights on concrete government achievements through the implementation of sustainability indicators, but clearly shows how they are insufficient to foster innovative governance arrangements for sustainability. The normative framework enables the identification of successes and failures of developing and using sustainability indicators in improving local governance and ultimately in helping to achieve sustainability goals.     

Sustainable planning for a coastal wetland system with an integrated ANP and DPSIR model for conflict resolution

Wetlands are important ecosystems on earth due to their capability of preserving water sources, mediating flooding, providing habitats for wildlife, and stabilizing coastlines. Wetlands play a critical role in regional sustainable development because of their ability to enhance resilience against extreme weather events. Maintaining coastal sustainability requires consideration of both the health of coastal wetlands and the resilience of urban systems while mitigating the conflict among social, economic, and environmental goals in land usages around coastal wetland environment. This study investigates a sensitive coastal wetland system located at central Taiwan for demonstration of a sustainable planning practice with an integrated model based on network topology in a socio-ecological context. There are two parts of the integrated model. Whereas a Driving force–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) model helps delineate the complex behaviors among different stakeholders by identifying various indicators, the analytic network process (ANP) quantifies the network topology of DPSIR. According to the survey via questionnaires answered by a group of experts, the DPSIR model is composed of 32 major indicators that can be networked by ANP. The results reveal that an effective ecological conservation depends on a series of mitigation actions, including river and habitat restorations, pollution control, green tourism, and integrated community development via better zoning policies.     

Evaluation of the sustainability of contrasted pig farming systems: integrated evaluation

The aim of this paper is to present an approach for an integrated evaluation of the sustainability of pig farming systems, taking into account the three classical pillars: economy, environment and society. Eight sustainability themes were considered: Animal Welfare (AW), Animal Health (AH), Breeding Programmes (BP), Environment (EN), Meat Safety (MS), Market Conformity (MC), Economy (EC) and Working Conditions (WC). A total of 37 primary indicators were identified and used for the evaluation of 15 much contrasted pig farming systems in five EU countries. The results show that the eight themes were not redundant and all contributed to the observed variation between systems. The tool was very robust for highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the systems along the eight themes that were considered. The number of primary indicators could be reduced from 37 to 18 with limited impact on the strengths/weaknesses profile of the individual systems. Integrating the eight theme evaluations into a single sustainability score is based on hypotheses or presumptions on the relative weights that should be given to the eight themes, which are very dependent on the context and on the purpose of the users of the tool. Therefore, the present paper does not have the ambition to provide a ready-for-use tool, rather to suggest an approach for the integrated evaluation of the sustainability of pig farming systems.     

Measuring countries’ environmental sustainability performance—The development of a nation-specific indicator set

The complicated task of measuring environmental sustainability has often led to comparative evaluations of national performance using ranking lists and generic policy targets. In this paper, a set of national environmental indicators is determined through the deployment of a five-stage methodology, which includes the use of focus group research and formation of an expert team to guide the process, selection of an initial pool of pre-existing indicators, establishment of criteria to guide the selection process, and setting of appropriate policy or trend-based targets given the nation-specific context. The nations of Iceland and Norway are used as case studies to demonstrate an effective means of communicating indicator outcomes over time. National performance is first evaluated on an indicator-by-indicator basis and then summarised overall through a system of traffic lights and radar charts for trend and target-based indicators respectively. Via this analytical process, it also becomes clear that data shortages partially constrain the extent to which a nation’s environmental sustainability performance can be deciphered. Improved data collection is necessary connected to the measurement of several environmental issues on a national scale, particularly the sustainability of fisheries, soil erosion and biodiversity.     

Monitoring sustainability in insular areas

The notion of sustainability is used widely at the policy level, but only few approaches deal with its measurement, especially at the local level. Here, we develop and apply a practical tool for the estimation of the sustainability state at the island level with the use of indicators selected and adapted from international agencies and institutes, in a framework which is an expanded version of the DPSR approach. The identification of the significant sustainability state factors and the selection of the indicators are based on areas’ characteristics, namely their insularity and the fact that they are in the Mediterranean. The values of these indicators were obtained or calculated for the islands of Paros and Kos in Greece. The findings reveal that the method can be of great use for the sustainability evaluation and for planning the sustainable development of islands.