Assessment of Sustainable Development
21 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2003
Date Written: June 22, 2000
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to introduce fuzzy set theory and develop fuzzy mathematical models to assess sustainable development based on context-dependent economic, ecological, and societal sustainability indicators. Membership functions are at the core of fuzzy models, and define the degree to which indicators contribute to development. Although a decision-making process regarding sustainable development is subjective, fuzzy set theory links human expectations about development, expressed in linguistic propositions, to numerical data, expressed in measurements of sustainability indicators. In the future, practical implementation of such models will be based on elicitation of expert knowledge to construct a membership function. The fuzzy models developed in this paper provide a novel approach to support decisions regarding sustainable development.
Keywords: agriculture, assessment, fuzzy set theory, sustainable development
JEL Classification: R4, M, M11, C69
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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