Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development

THIS IS ONE of the clearest and most thoughtful discussions of how to develop a framework for sustainable development indicators. It also includes many examples and helpful diagrams.

Chapter 1 discusses what indicators are and from where they arise – the desire to measure what we care about – and stresses their importance (not least because they sit at the centre of the decision-making process). It also points to how dangerous they can be if they are poorly chosen, as they can give a false or incomplete picture. Chapter 2 describes how indicators are always only partial reflections of reality (the map is not the territory it seeks to represent) and are generally based on uncertain and imperfect models. Chapter 3 discusses why we need indicators of sustainable development, and Chapter 4 the difficulties in coming up with appropriate indicators. It also discusses why we need a coherent information system from which indicators can be derived. Chapter 5 examines the key characteristics of such an information system and how its organization must meet the needs both for detail and specificity at local level and for more aggregation at higher levels. It explains why the process of developing indicators is as important as the indicators selected, and how this process must involve both specialists and non-specialists. This chapter also describes how indicators must help identify critical linkages, dynamic tendencies and leverage points of action. It stresses the need to distinguish between stocks and flows. Stocks are indicators of the state of the system (the amount of trees, the quantity of water in the aquifer.....). They are generally the most countable elements of systems and so make obvious indicators – whilst the size and lifetime of stocks give useful indicators of response rates. Flows are inputs or outputs (measured per unit time) that increase or decrease stocks – for instance, the harvest and growth of trees or the build up of greenhouse gases. Chapters 6 and 7 consider the ways in which natural capital is drawn on by “built capital” (the production structure which produces economic output) and “human and social capital” (which includes knowledge, wealth, health, trust, fair and democratic political and legal systems....) to address well-being (“ultimate ends” which includes happiness, fulfilment, self-respect....). They stress how the three most basic aggregate measures of sustainable development are the sufficiency with which well-being (“ultimate ends”) is realized for all people, the efficiency with which natural capital (“ultimate means”) is translated into ultimate ends, and the sustainability of use of natural capital. The report ends with a short Chapter 8, discussing the importance of getting indicators actually measured, reported and used. It stresses the need to get some preliminary indicators into use, even if our knowledge is imperfect – but within a commitment to search for better indicators and to monitor, test, evaluate and improve those that are used.