San Luis Basin Sustainability Metrics Project: A Methodology for Evaluating Regional Sustainability

摘要

Sustainability relates to finding and maintaining conditions that can support social and economic development without adversely altering the environmenta to too great an extent. Moreover, in order to satisfy the definition of sustainability, the environmental , social, and economic characteristics of the system must effectively meet the needs of current and future generations, indefinitely. Our definition of sustainability depends on the extent to which the environmental can be altered and still maintain a high quality of life for people, without jeopardizing the quality of life for futre generations. Consequently, to assess sustainability, information is needed to understand the requirements for human well-being and the linkages and demands of human activity (e.g., society, economy, government, industry, etc.) on environmental systems. One way to collect needed information is through metrics that quantify the enviornmental, social and economic characteristics of a system. We used a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to investigate this complex problem. Specifically, e st out to: 1)determine the appkicability of using existing datasets to estimate metrics of sustainability at a regional scale, 2) calculate the metrics through time (1980-2005), and 3) compare and contrast the results todetermin if a regional system is moving toward or away from sustainability. this information can help decision makers determine if their region is on a sustinable path (i.e., mving toward sustainability).