Sustainable development: Concepts and methods for its application in urban and environmental planning

Abstract

The idea of sustainable development may appear quite vague, fuzzy and evasive (Pearce et al. 1989). In fact, whereas sustainability is related to a status of maintenance and conservation of the existing conditions, both in space and time and is referred to the capacity to guarantee a support without causing decay, the concept of development implies, instead, an alteration and a transformation of actual status, then a condition of instability. This semantic conflict induces to an idea of both improvement and preservation: in substance, the effective aim of a sustainable development is the possibility to guarantee a better life quality for an enduring period of time. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.