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The development of indicators and core indicators for sustainable development: a state of the art review

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  • Luc Hens
  • Julie De Wit

Abstract

Experience with the establishment of indicators for sustainable development shows that it is scientifically feasible, most useful for communication with the public and a necessary navigation instrument to establish measures pertaining to the sustainability process objective. Usually, long lists of indicators were established to describe the complexity of sustainable development. More recently, these rather technical lists have been reduced to sets of core indicators. This paper compares the shortlists for the USA, the UK and Sweden, and shows that six indicators (GDP, greenhouse gas emissions, crime rate, employment, education level and life expectancy) are used by each of them. In spite of limitations related to the way the indicators are measured and the phasing out of specific national priorities, these commonly used measures might provide a backbone for other countries to develop their core indicator lists. This strategy is probably the most feasible as long as we have no widely accepted aggregated indicators.

Suggested Citation

  • Luc Hens & Julie De Wit, 2003. "The development of indicators and core indicators for sustainable development: a state of the art review," International Journal of Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 6(4), pages 436-459.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijsusd:v:6:y:2003:i:4:p:436-459
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. O׳Ryan, Raúl & Pereira, Mauricio, 2015. "Participatory indicators of sustainability for the salmon industry: The case of Chile," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 322-330.
    2. Elena Carrara & Rebecca Ciavarella & Stefania Boglietti & Martina Carra & Giulio Maternini & Benedetto Barabino, 2021. "Identifying and Selecting Key Sustainable Parameters for the Monitoring of e-Powered Micro Personal Mobility Vehicles. Evidence from Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-22, August.
    3. Carmelo Pinedo-Álvarez & Karla Ozuki Chacón-Chumacero & Alfredo Pinedo-Álvarez & Martín Martínez-Salvador & Marusia Rentería-Villalobos & Eduardo Santellano-Estrada & Sandra Rodríguez-Piñeros, 2017. "Using Social, Economic and Land-Use Indices to Build a Local Sustainability Index in a Mining Region of the Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico," Resources, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-15, August.
    4. Sajida Perveen & Md. Kamruzzaman & Tan Yigitcanlar, 2017. "Developing Policy Scenarios for Sustainable Urban Growth Management: A Delphi Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-27, October.

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