Sustainable Development Data Availability on the Internet

Defining what Sustainability and Sustainable Development mean is a critical task, as they are global objectives, which cover different aspects of life often difficult to quantify and describe. Talking about sustainable development means dealing with the development and implementation of SD strategies at international as well as at local level. With this regard, SD information plays a key role in monitoring SD performances at different administration levels. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of sustainable data availability on the internet at international, European, national and regional level. The paper is novel in the fact that the attention of the whole analysis focused on internet, considered as the principal mean for accessing data. In fact, the web has become through the years a fundamental tool for exchanging information amongst people, organisations, institutes, governments, thanks to its easy accessibility for a wide knowledge exchange. Sustainable development data collected at different administrative levels are classified and processed according to different methods and procedures; they are gathered at different scales, in different periods and they have a different frequency of updating. Data accuracy and meta-information on available data considerably vary, too. Few organisations at the international and at the European level such as, for example, World Bank, United Nations, OECD, FAO, Eurostat, EEA committed themselves to process information belonging to different sources aiming at standardising and producing comparable data sets for several nations and regions. Following the above considerations, various international, European and national organisations’ databases were investigated in order to check the availability of data at different administrative levels, mostly focusing on those sectors considered as pillars for the definition and monitoring of the implementation of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy, as pointed out in the Communication of the EC SEC(2005) 161 final.Sustainability, Indicators, Regional Development, Internet, Database

Analysing Regional Sustainability Through a Systemic Approach: The Lombardy Case Study

The intrinsic complexity of the sustainability concept challenges research towards more sophisticated ways to model and assess the dimensions underlying it. However, currently adopted modelling techniques and indicators frameworks are not able to give an integrated assessment through the different components of sustainability, providing incomplete visuals of the reality that they aim to catch. This paper tries to assess how the INSURE methodology can provide a contribution in the analysis of sustainability through indicator frameworks, describing its application to the Lombardy region (Italy). Developed on the course of a 6th European Framework Program – financed project to measure sustainability in the European regions, the methodology provides two distinct sustainability representations, based on a quantitative “top-down” System Dynamics model and on a qualitative “bottom-up” System Thinking approach. The models are then linked to a hierarchical indicator framework setting policy priorities. The overall objective is thus to create a set of regional indicators, adapting the models of regional sustainability to different policy agendas. The purpose of the paper is twofold: defining a new approach to sustainability appraisal, and assessing how the Region is holistically behaving towards sustainable development. Starting from a basis analysis of the main shortcomings highlighted by the use of most adopted methodologies, the paper will verify the contribution given by the INSURE methodology to research in the fields of modelling and indicators approaches, providing insights over methodological adjustments and the results obtained from the application to Lombardy. The conclusions will show how the methodology has tried to overcome identified constraints in current models, like the strong dependence on existing datasets of the obtained representations, the under-coverage of “immaterial factors” role and the scarce integration between sustainability dimensions.ustainable Development, Regional Economics, Econometric and Input Output Models, Development Planning and Policy, Regional Analyses

Analysing Regional Sustainability Through a Systemic Approach: The Lombardy Case Study

The intrinsic complexity of the sustainability concept challenges research towards more sophisticated ways to model and assess the dimensions underlying it. However, currently adopted modelling techniques and indicators frameworks are not able to give an integrated assessment through the different components of sustainability, providing incomplete visuals of the reality that they aim to catch. This paper tries to assess how the INSURE methodology can provide a contribution in the analysis of sustainability through indicator frameworks, describing its application to the Lombardy region (Italy). Developed on the course of a 6th European Framework Program – financed project to measure sustainability in the European regions, the methodology provides two distinct sustainability representations, based on a quantitative “top-down” System Dynamics model and on a qualitative “bottom-up” System Thinking approach. The models are then linked to a hierarchical indicator framework setting policy priorities. The overall objective is thus to create a set of regional indicators, adapting the models of regional sustainability to different policy agendas. The purpose of the paper is twofold: defining a new approach to sustainability appraisal, and assessing how the Region is holistically behaving towards sustainable development. Starting from a basis analysis of the main shortcomings highlighted by the use of most adopted methodologies, the paper will verify the contribution given by the INSURE methodology to research in the fields of modelling and indicators approaches, providing insights over methodological adjustments and the results obtained from the application to Lombardy. The conclusions will show how the methodology has tried to overcome identified constraints in current models, like the strong dependence on existing datasets of the obtained representations, the under-coverage of “immaterial factors” role and the scarce integration between sustainability dimensions

Sustainable Development Data Availability on the Internet

Defining what Sustainability and Sustainable Development mean is a critical task, as they are global objectives, which cover different aspects of life often difficult to quantify and describe. Talking about sustainable development means dealing with the development and implementation of SD strategies at international as well as at local level. With this regard, SD information plays a key role in monitoring SD performances at different administration levels. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of sustainable data availability on the internet at international, European, national and regional level. The paper is novel in the fact that the attention of the whole analysis focused on internet, considered as the principal mean for accessing data. In fact, the web has become through the years a fundamental tool for exchanging information amongst people, organisations, institutes, governments, thanks to its easy accessibility for a wide knowledge exchange. Sustainable development data collected at different administrative levels are classified and processed according to different methods and procedures; they are gathered at different scales, in different periods and they have a different frequency of updating. Data accuracy and meta-information on available data considerably vary, too. Few organisations at the international and at the European level such as, for example, World Bank, United Nations, OECD, FAO, Eurostat, EEA committed themselves to process information belonging to different sources aiming at standardising and producing comparable data sets for several nations and regions. Following the above considerations, various international, European and national organisations' databases were investigated in order to check the availability of data at different administrative levels, mostly focusing on those sectors considered as pillars for the definition and monitoring of the implementation of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy, as pointed out in the Communication of the EC SEC(2005) 161 final

Comparing region-specific sustainability assessments through indicator systems: feasible or not?

Numerous indices help us to compare country and local performance in the field of human development, globalization and sustainable development. Obvious problems arise, such as data availability and data quality. A less obvious issue is that such sets and indices do not permit the inclusion of specific characteristics or discourses that are important in a country or region. This paper investigates the possibility of comparing regional sustainability assessments in four case studies, where the indicators vary from region to region, but the method of making the assessment is similar. The concepts of weak and strong comparability were used in this analysis. Comparability of sustainable development between different regions is not an issue of rigid comparison of indicator by indicator. It should take into account regional specifics. The resulting shift from strong to weak comparability should not be seen as a lessening of the quality of the assessment and decreasing comparability. Rather than focusing on individual indicators within frameworks that do not permit inclusion of regional developments, this approach allows to look at the broader picture of regional dynamics. It reveals specific regional weaknesses that need attention, and possible areas for building alliances between regions, thus creating a more sustainable Europe

Comparing region-specific sustainability assessments through indicator systems: Feasible or not?

Numerous indices help us to compare country and local performance in the field of human development, globalization and sustainable development. Obvious problems arise, such as data availability and data quality. A less obvious issue is that such sets and indices do not permit the inclusion of specific characteristics or discourses that are important in a country or region. This paper investigates the possibility of comparing regional sustainability assessments in four case studies, where the indicators vary from region to region, but the method of making the assessment is similar. The concepts of weak and strong comparability were used in this analysis. Comparability of sustainable development between different regions is not an issue of rigid comparison of indicator by indicator. It should take into account regional specifics. The resulting shift from strong to weak comparability should not be seen as a lessening of the quality of the assessment and decreasing comparability. Rather than focusing on individual indicators within frameworks that do not permit inclusion of regional developments, this approach allows to look at the broader picture of regional dynamics. It reveals specific regional weaknesses that need attention, and possible areas for building alliances between regions, thus creating a more sustainable Europe.Sustainable development Regional Indicators Comparison Comparability