This insightful book explores the issue of sustainable development in its more operative and applied sense. Although a great deal of research has addressed potential interpretations and definitions of sustainable development, much of this work is too abstract to offer policy-makers and researchers the feasible and effective guidelines they require. This book redresses the balance.The authors highlight how various indicators and aggregate measures can be included in models that are used for decision-making support and sustainability assessment. They also demonstrate the importance of identifying practical means to assess whether policy proposals, specific decisions or targeted scenarios are sustainable.

With discussions of basic concepts relevant to understanding applied sustainability analysis, such as definitions of costs and revenue recycling, this book provides policy-makers, researchers and graduate students with feasible and effective principles for measuring sustainable development.