Measuring progress towards sustainable development in Venice: A comparative assessment of methods and approaches

Sustainable development is a relatively well-known concept. Although there are many definitions, the underlying concepts and aims are generally agreed upon. Many local communities have established a 'vision' of sustainability in terms of policies, goals, actions, etc in order to translate sustainability into their own context. Since sustainable development is an ambitious and long-term goal, it is clear that it is important to be able to assess the degree of progress towards it. This is a particularly challenging task for the city of Venice due to its unique environmental, social and economic characteristics.This overview is intended to discuss and compare the main approaches to measuring progress in order to propose a methodology for Venice. Five methods which represent the spectrum of approaches are analysed. Finally, the potential applicability of these to Venice are considered in light of the specific conditions of the city, and a set of local sustainability indicators is proposed

Public participation in Local Agenda 21: A review of traditional and innovative tools

There is a wealth of existing literature on specific methods to encourage public participation in Local Agenda 21. This paper provides a concise overview and comparative assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. For the sake of clarity, these methods are categorised into 'traditional' and 'innovative approaches', i.e. those which have been used and tested on a relatively frequent basis and those which are relatively new. Each of these approaches is associated with a number of strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, it is suggested that a combination of methods is adopted in order to reach the wider community, and specific approaches should be selected on the basis of the characteristics of the community in question