- •Sustainability Assessment
- •Sustainability Assessment
- •Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier
- •First published 2013
- •Notices
- •British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
- •A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
- •Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
- •A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
- •For information on all Academic Press publications visit our website at store.elsevier.com
- •List of Abbreviations
- •1 Sustainability Assessment of Policy
- •1.1 Introduction
- •1.2 Rationale
- •1.3 Understanding Discourses
- •2 Sustainability Climate of Policy
- •2.1 Introduction
- •2.2 Emergence of Policy Sustainability
- •2.2.1 Population and Resource
- •2.2.2 Modernity and Sustainability
- •2.3 Concept of Sustainability
- •2.3.1 Steady-State Economy
- •2.3.2 Carrying Capacity
- •2.3.3 Ecospace
- •2.3.4 Ecological Footprints
- •2.3.5 Natural Resource Accounting/Green Gross Domestic Product
- •2.3.6 Ecoefficiency
- •2.4 Sustainability Initiative
- •3 Characterizing Sustainability Assessment
- •3.1 Introduction
- •3.2 Resource System
- •3.3 Social System
- •3.4 Global System
- •3.5 Target Achievement
- •3.5.1 Detection of Changes
- •3.5.2 Determining Operation Scale
- •3.5.3 Harmonizing Operation Sequence
- •3.6 Accommodating Tradition and Culture
- •3.7 Selection of Instrument
- •3.8 Integration of Decision System
- •3.9 Responding to International Cooperation
- •4 Considerations of Sustainability Assessment
- •4.1 Introduction
- •4.2 Socioeconomic Consideration
- •4.2.1 Nature of Poverty
- •4.2.2 Nature of Resource Availability
- •4.2.3 Nature of Economy
- •4.2.4 Nature of Capital
- •4.2.5 Nature of Institutions
- •4.3 Consideration of System Peculiarities
- •4.3.1 Temporal Scale
- •4.3.2 Spatial Scale
- •4.3.3 Connectivity and Complexity
- •4.3.4 Accumulation
- •4.3.5 Nonmarketability
- •4.3.6 Moral and Ethical Considerations
- •4.4 Consideration of Component Peculiarities
- •5 Issues of Sustainability Assessment
- •5.1 Introduction
- •5.2 Issues Related to Society
- •5.2.1 Social Modernization
- •5.2.2 Societal Relationship
- •5.2.3 Radicalization and Convergence
- •5.2.4 Boserupian/Neo-Malthusian Issues
- •5.2.5 Social Ignorance
- •5.2.6 Social Attitudes
- •5.3 Issues Related to Policy Discourse
- •5.3.1 Discourses of Story Line
- •5.3.2 Discourses of Disjunction Maker
- •5.3.3 Discourses of Symbolic Politics
- •5.3.4 Discourses of Sensor Component
- •5.4 Issues Related to Actors
- •5.4.1 Influences of Macroactors
- •5.4.2 Positioning of Actors
- •5.4.3 Way of Arguing
- •5.5 Black Boxing
- •6 Components of Sustainability Assessment
- •6.1 Introduction
- •6.2 Social Adequacy
- •6.3 Scientific Adequacy
- •6.4 Status Quo
- •6.5 Policy Process
- •6.6 Policy Stimulus
- •6.7 Participation
- •6.8 Sectoral Growth
- •6.9 Resource Exploitation
- •6.10 Traditional Practices
- •6.11 Role of Actors
- •6.12 Framework Assessment
- •6.13 Scope Evaluation
- •6.14 Evaluation of Implementation
- •6.15 Instrument Evaluation
- •6.16 Structural Evaluation
- •6.17 Cause Evaluation
- •6.18 Cost Evaluation
- •6.19 Impact Assessment
- •6.20 Quantitative Approach
- •6.21 Anthropogenic Evaluation
- •6.22 Influence of Other Policies
- •7 Linkages of Sustainability Assessment
- •7.1 Introduction
- •7.2 Parallel Linkage
- •7.3 Linkage of Ascendancy
- •7.4 Linkage of Descendancy
- •7.5 Linkage of Hierarchy
- •7.6 Horizontal Linkage
- •7.7 Quasi-political Linkages
- •7.8 External Linkage
- •7.9 Market Linkage
- •7.10 Evaluation of Link to the Past
- •7.11 Actors and Story Line
- •7.12 Practices and Story Line
- •7.13 Reflection of Image of Change
- •7.14 Integrating Information
- •7.15 Forecasting
- •7.16 Assessing Options
- •7.17 Post-decision Assessment
- •8 Assessment of Policy Instruments
- •8.1 Introduction
- •8.2 Approaches of Implementation
- •8.3 Attributes of Instrument
- •8.4 Choice of Instruments
- •8.5 Instruments as a Component of Policy Design
- •8.6 Addressing the Implementation of Instruments
- •9 Social Perspectives of Sustainability
- •9.1 Introduction
- •9.2 Participation Evaluation
- •9.3 Process Evaluation
- •9.4 Retrospective Policy Evaluation
- •9.5 Evaluation of Policy Focus
- •9.6 Deductive Policy Evaluation
- •9.7 Comparative Modeling
- •9.8 Deductive Modeling
- •9.9 Optimizing Perspectives
- •9.10 Political Perspectives
- •10 Factors of Sustainability Assessment
- •10.1 Introduction
- •10.2 Actor as Policy Factor
- •10.3 Global Resource Factor
- •10.4 Local Resource Factors
- •10.5 Participation Factor
- •10.6 Participation Catalyst
- •10.7 Economic Factors
- •10.7.1 Influence of Macroeconomic Factors
- •10.7.2 Influence of Microeconomic Factors
- •10.7.3 Influence of Private Investment
- •10.7.4 Influence of Public Investment
- •10.7.5 Influence of Economic Incentives
- •10.8 Administrative Factor
- •10.8.1 Right and Tenure
- •10.8.2 Decentralization
- •10.8.3 Accessibility
- •10.9 Market Influence
- •10.10 Historical Factor
- •10.11 Other Factors
- •11 Tools for Sustainability Assessment
- •11.1 Introduction
- •11.2 Indicators for Evaluating Resource Dimension
- •11.2.1 SOR Indicators
- •11.2.2 NFR Indicators
- •11.2.3 Effectiveness Indicators
- •11.2.4 Comparing Indicators of Resources
- •11.2.5 Explanatory Variables
- •11.2.6 Tools for Assessing Human Dimension
- •12 Problems in Sustainability Assessment
- •12.1 Introduction
- •12.2 Boundary Problem
- •12.3 Problem with Social Concern
- •12.4 Role of Science
- •12.5 Institutional Difficulty
- •12.6 Implementation Problem
- •12.6.1 Circumstances External to the Implementing Agency
- •12.6.2 Inadequacy of Time, Resources, and Programs
- •12.6.3 Lack of Understanding Between Cause and Effect
- •12.6.4 Minimum Dependency Relationship of Decisions
- •12.6.5 Lack of Understanding of, and Agreement on, Objectives
- •12.6.6 Policy Tasks not Specified in Correct Sequence
- •12.6.7 Lack of Perfect Communication and Coordination
- •12.6.8 Rare Perfect Compliance of Implementing Body
- •13 Discussion and Recommendation
- •13.1 Discussion
- •13.2 Recommendation
- •13.3 Importance
- •Summary
- •References
CHAPTER 2
Sustainability Climate of Policy
2.1INTRODUCTION
2.2EMERGENCE OF POLICY SUSTAINABILITY
2.2.1Population and Resource
2.2.2Modernity and Sustainability 2.3 CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABILITY
2.3.1Steady-State Economy
2.3.2Carrying Capacity
2.3.3Ecospace
2.3.4Ecological Footprints
2.3.5Natural Resource Accounting/Green Gross Domestic Product
2.3.6Ecoefficiency
2.4 SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Although there are volumes of discussion on sustainable development and the environment, sustainable policy merits a special attention. Policy sustainability can be considered as a kind of new connection to all efforts of sustainable development. A sustainable policy designates the integration of goals and activities of a policy with sustainable development. Therefore, sustainability assessment of a policy can be considered as a process that helps policy managers to integrate the objectives of sustainability into policy actions in a given sociopolitical environment and to plan a strategy for policy implementation. The sustainability of resource and environmental policies depends on socioeconomic and sociopolitical issues considered in planning and management of a resource system to meet the needs of society. Perhaps, that is why different policies attempt different strategies for the improvement of resource use and to ensure sustainability. However, social attitude like corruption, nepotism, and nonprofessionalism of policy actors
Sustainability Assessment. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407196-4.00002-7
© 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
14 Sustainability Assessment
may cause policy failure in many instances. Thus, performances of resource policy largely depend on social factors, sociopolitical actors, and resource sectors of a country. These factors and their interplay within the society constitute the sustainability climate, an understanding of which is important for policy evaluation. This chapter essentially aims at presenting sociopolitical elements that create a congenial climate for sustainable policy.
The factors of sustainability climate are not exogenous; rather, they evolve along with the society. A good understanding and explanation of policy issues addresses the social activities as well as the processes of modernization. As a result, rationalization of resource use and negotiation of social contradictions are important issues for sustainable policy. The fundamental way of looking at those processes is to select different forms of ecomodernist tools and practices, which can be used in mitigating social contradictions but which have not been given importance in the policy action. Thus, understanding the economic processes, social dynamics, development progress, and institutional characteristics is important for general clarification of policy climate.
The problems of definition as well as solution to sustainability should be socially acceptable and technically viable. If an environmental problem is addressed by a technically efficient but socially insensitive policy, that policy may result in regulatory failure. There are certain policy instruments that need to be utilized appropriately for solving the problem and for the viability of policy. For example, an intervention or a nonintervention method, if adopted to prevent social construction of an environmental problem, may not help in achieving environmental planning for sustainability. The social construction of a problem should be prevented by social measures not by intervention measures. According to Hajer (1995), the social climate of a policy problem largely depends on the following three dimensions:
1.Discursive closure—delineates which aspects of the problem are included and which aspects have been left out from the policy.
2.Problem closure—which shows whether the strategy of regulation helped to achieve certain goals of sustainability.
3.Social accommodation—gives the understanding of any particular way the problem has been positioned or priority it has been given.