p.266 ABSTRACT
This paper describes development of a systems-based framework
of indicators of sustainable development for the system Christchurch-in-Canterbury using a combination of
the Max-Neef and Bossel frameworks. The combined framework was tested against some available data sets, finding them
incomplete to a greater or lesser extent. The paper concludes with a draft set of indicators, within a robust framework.
p.266 In the literature on sustainable development we find
a wide range of attempts to assess humanity's development and its relationship to the natural environment. In our opinion,
these attempts generally fall short of representing all the variables and relationships of the immense complexity that is
Sustainability. The information is generally fragmented... missing vital information and lacking an overall organising
framework. As an example, the commonly used pressure-state-response (PSR) approach (and its variants) is widely criticised
for its inability to account for relationships and dynamics between variables and systems.
p.267 The Max-Neef Framework
Max-Neef's work addresses the nature of human need.
He asserts that Development is about .... allowing people the greatest improvement in ... Quality of Life,
[which in turn] depends on the possibilities people have to adequately satisfy their fundamental human needs.
Further:
- Fundamental human needs are finite, few and
classifiable.
- Fundamental human needs are the same in all cultures and in all historical
periods. What changes, both over time and through cultures, is the way or the means by which the needs are satisfied.
p.267
- The Needs are all necessary, all equal.
- Any human need that is not adequately satisfied
reveals a human Poverty.
- There are multiple poverties, not just one kind of poverty. ... every
poverty, if extended beyond a threshold, leads to a Pathology, a sickness.
p.267 The Bossel Framework
This framework (Bossel, 1998, 1999) addresses
the needs of complex systems in general. Every system has a number of fundamental properties which are a direct reflection
of the properties of the environment - the context - within which it exists. Bossel shows that every system -
whether living or manufactured - has entirely general properties that he calls Orientors. These properties
influence not just the structure and function of the system itself, but also influence (orient) that system's
behaviour towards its surrounding environment. A Basic Orientor is more fundamental, and relates to the system's
overriding goal or driver - which in this paper we are specifying Sustainability. Bossel lists six basic orientors: Existence,
Effectiveness, Freedom of Action, Security, Adaptability and Coexistence.
p.269 Indicator Selection
As a generalisation, we use indicators to reflect the state
of satisfaction of each basic orientor... The key task of finding out if people's needs are being satisfied,
for example, requires prior determination of a principle against which the nature and extent of satisfaction of those basic
needs can be evaluated. In the general case, humans accept responsibility for their actions, and do this via explicit
(or sometimes implicit) statements of an ethic that reflects that responsibility. The evaluation is then done by identifying
appropriate indicators to represent... complex aspects of the quality of life.
p.270 it is necessary to condense the information as much as possible
without compromising the integrity of the framework. For that purpose, Bossel proposes a number of techniques, of which the
more significant for this research are:
- Representative Indicators: Occasionally there is a particular piece of information
that is capable of summarising the state of a whole orientor. For example, GDP can be a measure of the existence orientor
for an economy sub-subsystem.
- Weakest link: Finding the point where there is a particular weakness (limiting
factor) will help indicate the viability of the whole system better than indicators of factors that may not be at risk. An
example is the use of crude oil supply as a measure of effectiveness or freedom of action of the economy sub-subsystem.
- Subjective Viability Assessment: There are cases in which there are few quantitative
or significant data for a particular variable. In those cases an expert qualitative assessment regarding viability may be
enough, as in the case of the general state of the biodiversity of an ecosystem in the natural subsystem.
p.270 As a test of the combined Bossel/Max-Neef frameworks, we
applied it to assess the coverage and comprehensiveness of two widely-known assessment frameworks... The variables
chosen were those seen to be most urgent and representative of the pressures facing sustainability
p.271 the purpose of an indicator is to assess the state of a particular
orientor, it may be hard to know which... to choose.
p.274 if needs are satisfied properly, there can often
be emergent outcomes that result in positive effects on other needs/orientors... [JLJ note to self - use this in
paper] Max-Neef's insights [confirm] the importance of seeing the whole as a complex system in which feedbacks and
nonlinearities are present, rather than as a simple linear system
p.275-276 Conclusions and Recommendations
We emphasise here, that what is presented in this paper
and its Appendix is not an "answer" to the need for a set of indicators of sustainability for the system under examination.
It is a draft set of possible indicators, which if used carefully should cover all facets of the system's requirements
for sustainable development, and address concerns about its long-term viability... The work described here
is a "pilot" example of how the exercise might be carried out... The most important point we would make is that
of the importance of dealing with the whole, even if in doing so, we have to use many rough approximations and personal value
judgements. As quoted earlier, one of our key principles in addressing issues of sustainability of complex
systems is that it is better to deal incompletely with the whole, than wholly with the incomplete.
