Sustainability thinking in environmental assessment

Abstract

If environmental assessment is to more effectively assist in the move towards sustainability goals, deeper consideration of substantive, value-based questions associated with this field is required. Such questions relate, for example, to the way in which we conceive of and value the environment, the various stakeholder perceptions of development and the types of knowledge most appropriate to the environmental assessment endeavour. These issues are explored in this paper, which is based on the Applied Integrative Sustainability Guide (2010) produced by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa. In so doing, the authors draw on the work of leading thinkers in the fields of complexity theory, environmental ethics, development economics and planning.