An instrument for interactive setting development goals of a socio-environmental system

Abstract

Decision making to reach for sustainable development of a region can be seen as a debate about the possibilities to integrate social, economic, physical, ecological, and cultural development goals. To make this integration successful, it is necessary to consider a region as a socio-environmental system (SEnS). We use this system concept to make sure that different types of goals and their adverse side effects will be taken as much as possible into account in decision making for regional sustainable development. For setting development goals, we have constructed a framework that we present here. First, we formulate the requirements for goal setting for sustainable development. This results in a kind of framework as search-and-check instrument. This framework can be used to translate people's development goals into valuable characteristics of the socio-environmental system considered. Then we present a case to illustrate the use of the framework in regional development plans. The case shows that the instrument can provide a more balanced survey than usual in practice. For the people involved, it shows which type of goals is missing in the debate about the development of their region.