Practical appraisal of sustainable development--Methodologies for sustainability measurement at settlement level

This paper investigates the relationships between settlement size, functionality, geographic location and sustainable development. Analysis was carried out on a sample of 79 Irish settlements, located in three regional clusters. Two methods were selected to model the level of sustainability achieved in settlements, namely, Metabolism Accounting and Modelling of Material and Energy Flows (MA) and Sustainable Development Index Modelling. MA is a systematic assessment of the flows and stocks of material within a system defined in space and time. The metabolism of most settlements is essentially linear, with resources flowing through the urban system. The objective of this research on material and energy flows was to...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Indicators, Material flow, Planning, Settlements, Sustainability

National Minerals Information Center

The mission of the USGS National Minerals Information Center (formerly the Minerals Information Team) is to collect, analyze, and disseminate information on the domestic and international supply of and demand for minerals and mineral materials essential to the U.S. economy and national security. About 90 mineral commodities are covered.The Center's goal is to provide decision makers with the information required to ensure that the Nation has an adequate and dependable supply of minerals and materials to meet its defense and economic needs at acceptable costs related to environment, energy, and economics. In addition to special data releases available through ScienceBase, annual and monthly or quarterly statistical...

Tags: NMIC, abrasives, alumina, aluminum, antimony, All tags... arsenic, asbestos, barite, bauxite, beryllium, bismuth, boron, bromine, cadmium, cement, cesium, chromium, clays, cobalt, construction sand, copper, corundum, critical minerals, crushed stone, diamond, diatomite, dimension stone, explosives, feldspar, ferroalloys, fluorspar, gallium, garnet, gemstones, germanium, gold, graphite, gypsum, hafnium, helium, indium, industrial sand, iodine, iron, iron and steel scrap, iron ore, iron oxide pigments, kyanite, lead, lime, lithium, magnesium, manganese, material flow, materials flow, mercury, mica, mineral commodities, mineral resources, minerals, molybdenum, nickel, niobium, nitrogen, peat, perlite, phosphate rock, platinum group metals, potash, pumice, pyrophyllite, quartz, rare earths, recycling, rhenium, rubidium, salt, sand and gravel, scandium, scrap, selenium, silica, silicon, silver, soda ash, statistics, staurolite, steel, stone, strontium, sulfur, supply chain, sustainability, talc, tantalum, tellurium, thallium, thorium, tin, titanium, tripoli, tungsten, vanadium, vermiculite, wollastonite, yttrium, zeolites, zinc, zirconium, Fewer tags