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An Overview of Sustainability Assessment Frameworks in Agriculture

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  • Abdallah Alaoui

    (Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 12, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Lúcia Barão

    (Center for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c), University of Lisbon, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Carla S. S. Ferreira

    (Department of Physical Geography and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, 11419 Stockholm, Sweden
    Navarino Environmental Observatory, Costa Navarino, Navarino Dunes, 24001 Messinia, Greece
    Research Centre of Natural Resources, Environment and Society (CERNAS), Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Coimbra Agrarian Technical School, Bencanta, 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal)

  • Rudi Hessel

    (Wageningen Environmental Research, 6708 WG Wageningen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Recent research established a link between environmental alterations due to agriculture intensification, social damage and the loss of economic growth. Thus, the integration of environmental and social dimensions is key for economic development. In recent years, several frameworks have been proposed to assess the overall sustainability of farms. Nevertheless, the myriad of existing frameworks and the variety of indicators result in difficulties in selecting the most appropriate framework for study site application. This manuscript aims to: (i) understand the criteria to select appropriate frameworks and summarize the range of those being used to assess sustainability; (ii) identify the available frameworks to assess agricultural sustainability; and (iii) analyze the strengths, weaknesses and applicability of each framework. Six frameworks, namely SAFA, RISE, MASC, LADA, SMART and public goods (PG), were identified. Results show that SMART is the framework that considers, in a balanced way, the environmental, sociocultural and economic dimensions of sustainability, whereas others focused on the environmental (RISE), environmental and economic (PG) and sociocultural (SAFA) dimension. However, depending on the scale assessment, sector of application and the sustainability completeness intended, all frameworks are suitable for the assessment. We present a decision tree to help future users understand the best option for their objective.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdallah Alaoui & Lúcia Barão & Carla S. S. Ferreira & Rudi Hessel, 2022. "An Overview of Sustainability Assessment Frameworks in Agriculture," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-26, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:4:p:537-:d:788848
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    4. Sacha Amaruzaman & Douglas K. Bardsley & Randy Stringer, 2023. "Analysing agricultural policy outcomes in the uplands of Indonesia: A multi‐dimensional sustainability assessment," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 1937-1950, June.
    5. Bredemeier, Birte & Herrmann, Sylvia & Sattler, Claudia & Prager, Katrin & van Bussel, Lenny G.J. & Rex, Julia, 2022. "Insights into innovative contract design to improve the integration of biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural management," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    6. Stefan Partelow, 2023. "What is a framework? Understanding their purpose, value, development and use," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 13(3), pages 510-519, September.

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