Sustainable development assessment from a capitals perspective: Analytical structure and indicator selection criteria

Sustainable development assessment has been conducted considering its various dimensions, such as environmental, social, cultural and economic. In this paper, the representation of such dimensions is undertaken from the perspective of the natural, social and built capitals. These dimensions are usually represented by indicators, indexes and systems of indicators, but their abundance in the technical and scientific literatures without adequate analytical structures can impair assessment quality and speed. This study aimed to propose a structure for sustainable development assessment whereby key aspects and indicators can be identified, prioritised and meaningfully used from the perspective of sustainable development capitals. Content analysis of selected international papers and technical reports was undertaken to identify relevant analysis elements and their hierarchical order. This has led to a four-tier framework composed of three capitals, seven categories, 19 subcategories and 52 attributes, each of which can be measured with the aid of one or more locally relevant indicator(s) in the context of sustainable development assessment. Selection criteria for such indicators were compiled from the literature and are presented in terms of their political, management, data quality and economic relevance. This study may contribute to the development and refinement of structured sustainable development indicator systems with less analytical ambiguity, overlapping and gaps, and hence improve the representativeness of future assessment efforts.