Criteria and Indicators for regional Sustainable Development

Abstract

The main function of sustainability criteria is to serve as a check-list that facilitates the assessment of statements and opinions of interested parties in the elaboration of a sustainable development plan, which is the end-result of a regional analysis and formulation of strategies, including the identification of appropriate measures and projects. We present here a practical and scientifically (state-of-the-art with regard to the sustainable development debate) based set of sustainability criteria of special interest to regions. It is not within the scope of this research, however, to go on to the next step of developing specific indicators beyond those that have already been developed by others, which are already quite useful if applied properly.