The ASI project is a joint initiative by the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), the International Human Dimensions of Global Change Programme (IHDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Participation of experts from a number of intergovernmental agencies will facilitate the dissemination and effective use of the assessment results within these agencies and to their respective constituencies. The project will be managed at the Charles University Environment Centre (CUEC).

While sustainability indicators are used ever more extensively and intensively by a wide range of users and in many different contexts, it does not necessarily follow that they are scientifically sound and/or used appropriately. There has been no agreement or consensus on a common set of scientific and management criteria for evaluating indicators from several points of view (e.g. reliability of supporting data, scientific rigor of definitions of indicators, validity of underlying assumptions and concepts, relevance of positive or negative trends for sustainable development).

A major goal of the project is to evolve criteria for determining whether a given indicator (or set of indicators) can evaluate or measure sustainability in a realistic, reliable way. This project addresses “sustainability” in the large and largely accepted sense of the word and its complexity, looking at the environmental, social, economic and institutional dimensions of sustainable development and their connections. As regards environmental sustainability, the discussion will stress the importance of critical load, essential value and threshold aspects.

It is expected that ASI will generate as an intermediary result, an in-depth survey of existing indicators that can serve as a stand-alone, useful general-purpose guide on the broad spectrum of such indicators, including their description, examples of key findings, and selected characteristics. This information will be collated and made available free of charge electronically as a database on an ASI project web site.

This survey will provide a preliminary step for the development of a science-based assessment of existing sustainable development indicators, as well as a set of ASI criteria for testing indicators of sustainable development for a variety of purposes and at different geographic scales. The assessment should convey the definition of criteria for the analysis, the analysis itself, principal findings, discussion, identification of gaps in knowledge and research needs, and finally, recommendations to decision-makers, sustainable development planners and the major stakeholders. This assessment will be presented in a science-based monograph (volume) published commercially, and will also be available in the format of an executive summary for wider, complimentary distribution.