How to measure Sustainable Development?

The methods to measure sustainable development are as under:

(i) Measuring Natural Capital Stock:

The stock of natural resource assets or of environmental assets consists of soil fertility, forests, fisheries, and the capacity to assimilate waste, oil, gas, coal, and biogeochemical cycles. It requires that the natural capital stock should be conserved and improved. This can be measured m terms the cost-benefit analysis of changes in natural capital stock.

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(ii) Natural Reserve or Green Accounting:

Under this method, computation of income for a nation by taking into account the economic change and depletion in the natural resource base of an economy. It can be secured without decreasing the stock of natural assets. It can be expressed as NNP=GNP-D” (where D” is the depreciation of the monetary value of natural assets in a year).

(iii) Measuring Environmental Values:

This is related to the measuring of environmental damage and compares it with the cost of preventing it. It concerns comparing the benefits of environmental protection with the costs incurred on it.