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1 - Sustainability Assessment: Introduction and Framework

from Part I - Theoretical Background

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2020

By
Pekka Halla  and
Claudia R. Binder
Edited by
Claudia R. Binder ,
Romano Wyss  and
Emanuele Massaro
Claudia R. Binder
Affiliation:
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Romano Wyss
Affiliation:
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Emanuele Massaro
Affiliation:
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
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Summary

Sustainability assessment aims to operationalise the popular but ambiguous concept of sustainability in the analysis of concrete problems and in decision-making situations. However, instead of being a strictly defined methodology, sustainability assessment is a field of science and practice that covers a range of possible tools and processes. To give an introduction to the topic, in this chapter we first place sustainability assessment in its societal and scientific context, and then proceed to discuss its definitions, characteristics, and current limitations based on a review of state-of-the-art literature. Furthermore, we propose a general framework of the dimensions of sustainability assessment, which makes a distinction between the assessment process itself and the broader contextual factors that influence the design of individual applications of sustainability assessment. The framework is meant to identify in a comprehensive manner the concepts, questions, and choices that a thorough design of a sustainability assessment will encounter.

Keywords

sustainabilitysustainability assessmentsustainability scienceimpact assessment
Type
Chapter
Information
Sustainability Assessment of Urban Systems , pp. 7 - 29
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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