Sustainability assessment framework: a mini review of assessment concept

Abstract

Sustainability assessment is viewed as a vital instrument to aid in the shift towards sustainability which is simply an appraisal method which integrates an iterative and pluralistic procedure. Sustainability assessment is viewed as a vital instrument to aid in the shift towards sustainability. Sustainability assessment is a rather complex appraisal technique conducted for supporting decision-making and policy in an extensive environmental, economic and social perspective. Sustainability assessment transcends a technical or scientific evaluation. Sustainability assessment tools are essentially a structured process encompassing different field-specific analytical methods and models. The growth of indicators in numerous fields has influenced sustainability assessment methodologies to a great extent. In general two broad approaches for sustainability can be distinguished, top-down and bottom-up. Despite the abundance and diversified procedures for evaluating sustainability, indicators based assessment is one of the most widely used platform. Many parties feel that the presence of conceptual inconsistencies and the absence of operational definitions have hampered attempts to appraise, let alone achieve, sustainability. Assessing the sustainability assessment schemes in a quantitative manner requires the identification and integration of diverse phenomena or indicators, in a framework consistent with the evolving concept of sustainability. In fact, integration of indicators for sustainability assessment, have been at the forefront of various political, academic and scientific researches. Existing sustainability assessments schemes typically provide interpretation in the form of comparative value analysis where impacts are scored based on pre-set values, utility analysis where impacts are ranked on a uniform scale and weighted, cost-benefit analysis where positive and negative impacts are apportioned to monetary values, multi-criteria analysis where quantitative as well as qualitative impacts are scaled on pre-set criteria or risk assessment where degrees in risk reduction is identified relative to pre-set risk thresholds. Consequently, the paper that follows provides an integrative analysis of existing sustainability assessment approaches. Such review not only offers a very valuable insight on the features of existing sustainability assessment schemes, but also highlighting gaps to a certain extent.