Sustainable Development: A Systems Approach

Shaw, R.W., Gallopin, G.C., Weaver, P., & Oeberg, S. (1992). Sustainable Development: A Systems Approach. IIASA Status Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: SR-92-006

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Abstract

This Status Report summarizes the final report of the IIASA Environment and Development Study which was submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in December 1991. As a systems analysis institute, IIASA was asked by UNCED in mid-1990 to explore the usefulness of systems analysis in: identifying some of the important linkages among population, environment, and development; examining some of the underlying causes of environmentally unsustainable development; and in formulating and implementing policies for more sustainable development. The work first involved the formulation of conceptual models of the socio-ecological system in which we live. The application of systems analysis to environment and development was then examined in several case studies. The case studies, based mainly upon past and present work carried out here at IIASA, indicated that systems analysis is potentially very useful in helping us towards a sustainable future. However, the work that is described in the report gives only a few examples of what could be done in the years following UNCED.

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