Defining and Measuring Stability: The Biogeophysical Foundations.

Distributed for the United Nations University by the World Bank, the chief purpose of this work is to address the "basic challenge" of sustainability, which is "defining, measuring, and operationalizing" it. Further discussion centres around where and how sustainability is violated and, perhaps more importantly, why it is violated.

The collaborative effort of some eight dozen international scholars and based on papers prepared for the 1992 International Conference on the Definition and Measurement of Sustainability, this is no mere technical study. Thorough empirical research is augmented by thoughtful qualitative discussion that richly blends both the natural and social sciences.

Well organized in three sections - background, case study presentations, and an examination of several kinds of managed ecosystems, including wetlands, fisheries and rangelands - Stability compares concepts of sustainable development and related trade-offs where economic interests are concerned. "Win-win" situations that defuse the dilemma of economic profit at the expense of sustainability are illuminated. Accessible diction throughout serves to broaden the dialogue as the relevance of public policy and social issues are interwoven. The authors propose a new discipline, "econology", a more comprehensive extension of ecology and economics. All told, they well achieve their aim of outlining the parameters of sustainable use of resources.