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Indicator development in sustainability impact assessment: balancing theory and practice

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Abstract

In this article, the development and operationalisation of forestry-wood chain indicators within the frame of sustainability impact assessment are discussed. The analytical framework follows a distinction between indicator definition and selection in a first phase, and a second operational phase of indicator application in terms of interconnecting material flows, calculation of chain performance and utilisation within evaluation components. A clear boundary drawing effort in terms of the development of indicator definitions, related subclasses, and measurement units as well as the creation of conversion factors between indicator values and individual chain stages supports this. Economic, social and environmental indicators have to respond to data collection needs on individual process levels (that correspond to sub-divisions of the forestry-wood chain). For the usage of indicators within evaluation tools, a functional hierarchy has to be provided that supports clear preference elicitation as well as information on related externalities. In total, this paper aims at demonstrating an enhanced spectrum in the use of sustainability indicators, and the challenges that arise from a developing and applying multi-functional indicators in sustainability impact assessment.

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Notes

  1. The EFORWOOD project team did not include environmental interest groups as it was not possible to integrate them during the development of the research proposal; their input was instead incorporated through a stakeholder workshop conducted in October 2006 (see Fig. 1).

Abbreviations

CBA:

Cost-benefit analysis

DCP:

Data collection protocols

EFORWOOD:

Sustainability impact assessment for the forestry-wood chain

FWC:

Forestry-wood chain

MCA:

Multi-criteria analysis

MCPFE:

Ministerial conference on the protection of forests in Europe

OECD:

Organisation for economic co-operation and development

SIA:

Sustainability impact assessment

ToSIA:

Tool for the sustainability impact assessment

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the European Community’s Sixth Framework Programme within the Integrated Project “EFORWOOD,” contract no. 518128. We thank Gerhard Weiss for his constructive comments on earlier drafts, and three anonymous reviewers for helping to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science and Sociology, University of Salzburg, Rudolfskai 42, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Helga Pülzl

  2. Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia (CTFC), Forest Economics Area, Ctra. De St. Llorenç de Morunys, km. 2, 25280, Solsona, Spain

    Irina Prokofieva

  3. The Forestry Research Institute of Sweden, SkogForsk, Uppsala Science Park, 75183, Uppsala, Sweden

    Staffan Berg

  4. EFICEEC c/o Department of Economics and Social Sciences, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, Feistmantelstraße 4, 1180, Vienna, Austria

    Ewald Rametsteiner, Filip Aggestam & Bernhard Wolfslehner

  5. Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, Institute of Silviculture, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, Peter Jordan Strasse 82, 1190, Vienna, Austria

    Bernhard Wolfslehner

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  1. Helga Pülzl
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  2. Irina Prokofieva
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Correspondence to Helga Pülzl.

Additional information

Communicated by K. Rosén.

Major parts of this text have been written during the research stay of Helga Pülzl at Rutgers University (USA) that was financially supported through an Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship of the FWF Austrian Science Fund (J 3015-G16).

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Pülzl, H., Prokofieva, I., Berg, S. et al. Indicator development in sustainability impact assessment: balancing theory and practice. Eur J Forest Res 131, 35–46 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-011-0547-8

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