Defining and Measuring Stability: The Biogeophysical Foundations.

• Author: Saffron, Joseph

Distributed for the United Nations University by the World Bank, the chief purpose of this work is to address the "basic challenge" of sustainability, which is "defining, measuring, and operationalizing" it. Further discussion centres around where and how sustainability is violated and, perhaps more importantly, why it is violated.

The collaborative effort of some eight dozen international scholars and based on papers prepared for the 1992 International Conference on the Definition and Measurement of Sustainability, this is no mere technical study. Thorough empirical research is augmented by thoughtful qualitative discussion that richly blends both the natural and social sciences.

Well organized in three sections - background, case study presentations, and an examination of several kinds of managed ecosystems...