Sustainability indicators

From Sustainable Community Action

Sustainability indicators global and by place Portal UK - UK news / USA - Europe

"It is no longer sufficient to develop passive lists or reports to ‘inform’ citizens of changes in our environment. We need to engage with citizens and ask how they can ‘inform’ us. Obtaining and using local knowledge will help us empower citizens, and it will also give us a better indication of what we need to do to be truly sustainable." Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, Global citizen observatory - The role of individuals in observing and understanding our changing world. Lecture by Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director, European Environment Agency. Annual Earthwatch lecture - Citizen Science, Oxford, 16th February 2009. / Inspiring Quotes 18

Indicators simply measure or indicate what’s going on, and answer straightforward questions about chosen issues. Indicators can show

• Where we are now, and provide a ‘benchmark’ against which to assess future progress
• What’s improving, what’s getting worse, and what’s not changing
• The strengths or good aspects of an area as well as challenges it faces

Sustainability Indicators or local Quality of Life Indicators are about questions that affect us all

• What’s going on in your community?
• Is crime on the increase?
• Is the environment in trouble?
• What shape is the local economy in?

Contents 1 Action Ideas 2 Global News 2007 3 Related 4 External links

[edit] Action Ideas

• Local quality of life indicators
• Local quality of life Index
• Community surveys
• Footprint analysis - see International links

[edit] Global News 2007

• October 6 is Ecological Debt day – the day when humanity has consumed all the resources the planet will produce this year. ^[1]
  

[edit] Related

SCA Community resources Communities online Local needs met locally Sustainability networks, general article, including action ideas, within the Ideas Bank Information by topic - see topic pages - e.g. Climate change global links	Wikipedia Ecological footprint	Wikisphere Environment monitoring, Future scenarios

[edit] External links

• Global Footprint Network
• Worldmapper
• Integrated Approaches to Participatory Development (IAPAD) - Participatory Avenues acts as focal point for sharing information and technical progress on community-based mapping and Public Participation GIS (PPGIS). The website provides ample documentation on Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM), an efficient tool for merging indigenous technical knowledge and traditional spatial information. P3DM applications include community-based natural resources management, collaborative research and planning, resource use, control and tenure, and related conflict management.
• Water footprint

Ideas Bank - Climate change - Environmental wellbeing - Social wellbeing - Economic wellbeing - Transport and Planning - Local sustainability - Community involvement - Global connections - Personal options - Ideas Bank by place - Village pump

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References

• Defra news release, Ref: 440/06, 13 October 2006

1. ↑ Global Footprint Network, October 6