Sustainability Indicators and Metrics
Pp. 197-221 (25)
H. Cabezas
Abstract
Sustainability is about preserving human existence. Indicators and metrics
are absolutely necessary to provide at least a semi-quantitative assessment of progress
towards or away from sustainability. Otherwise, it becomes impossible to objectively
assess whether progress is being made. The subject, however, is by its nature complex
and multidisciplinary. Indicators and metrics must, therefore, encompass a wide of
issues relevant to human existence, and they must be useful in “steering” the system
towards a sustainable trajectory. They must, however, be well grounded in science and
allow for comparisons across different systems. As a minimum, metrics must represent
economic strength, human environmental burden, energy use, and system order and
stability. A comprehensive suite of metrics is essential to the kind of adaptive
management that is necessary for practical implementation of sustainability.
Keywords:
Adaptive management, biocapacity, complex system, economics,
ecological foot print, ecosystem, emergent properties, emergy, exergy, fisher
information, green accounting, gross domestic product, indicators, metrics,
biocapacity, ecological footprint, emergy, Exergy, green net domestic or regional
product, power, sustainability definitions, system scale, system trajectory,
uncertainty sources, temporal scale.
Affiliation:
Sustainable Technology Division, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA