Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development : Theory, Methods and Applications

The effectiveness and scope of operational analysis of sustainable development is explored in this major new book. Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development offers an integrated treatment of theory, methods and applications for economic-ecological analysis taking into consideration all the relevant interactions between economic, development and physical and biological processes. An overview of different theoretical perspectives, based on insights from economics, ecology and thermodynamics, is followed by discussion of the dimensions of sustainable development including ethics and intergenerational equity, sustainable and multiple use, and spatial sustainability. The second part of the book discusses methods for analysis, covering the choice of indicators, natural resource accounting, and integrated static, dynamic and spatial modelling, and evaluation, including multi-criteria and cost-benefit analysis. Attention is also given to decision support and the choice of policy instruments. Combinations of the various methods are applied in the final part of the book, using case studies which cover a range of ecosystems and regions, as well as a variety of issues and problems. These studies clearly show the potential of policy-oriented integrated economic-ecological analysis for sustainable development.