Back to Sustainable Indicators: A Review of National Methods and Suggestions for Long Island

A METHODOLOGICAL REVIEW OF U.S. INDICATOR PROJECTS Below are brief abstracts of ten different U.S. projects. a. Sustainable Seattle: A National Model Indicators for Sustainable Community Seattle, Washington b. Cambridge Civic Forum - Cambridge, Massachusetts c. Santa Monica Sustainable City Program - Santa Monica, California d. The Quality of Life In Pasadena: an index for the 90s and beyond - Pasadena, California e. Life in Jacksonville: Quality Indicators for Progress - Jacksonville, Florida f. Willapa Indicators for a Sustainable Community - Willapa, Washington g. Indicators for a Sustainable San Francisco - San Francisco, California h. Minnesota Milestones -The State of Minnesota i. Oregon Benchmarks - The State of Oregon j. Index of Leading Environmental Indicators for the U.S. and Canada A central issue for indicator projects is how to facilitate their use in the development and implementation of policy and planning decisions at the local or regional level. This depends largely on how the indicators are developed and whether they have political support. In this section we review ten indicator studies from around the country and compare their different methodologies. For example: Who coordinated the project? Were both governmental and non-governmental organizations involved? How were decisions made? Who determined which quality-of-life categories to use? Who selected the indicators? What process was used to select indicators? How many indicators were used? Was the project revised in succeeding years? Did the project set specific objectives? Were those objectives monitored? Did the project examine the interrelationships among indicators?