3.4 The Sustainability Wheel

As an example, for an integration approach, let’s look into The Sustainability Wheel as it was developed in the Water Scarcity case study. The Sustainability Wheel is a dialogue-based method which allows the different disciplines to bring in results from their research and discuss the implications of different aspects of sustainability. It also could be used to integrate societal actor’s knowledge, but in this case, the stakeholders preferred to have researchers from different disciplines performing the assessment. 

Results or future scenarios were summarised in a so-called The Sustainability Wheel. In this wheel, the different dimensions of sustainability are shown in the centre. For each dimension, different indicators were defined. Rates ranging from ‘very poor’ to ‘very good’ were given to these predefined indicators by combining the knowledge produced by different disciplines. 

that combined transparent identification of sustainability principles, their regional contextualisation through sub-principles (indicators), and the scoring of these indicators through deliberative dialogue within an interdisciplinary team of researchers taking into account their joint research results.

Every field was discussed between the researchers and rated. The results are based on both quantitative and qualitative data. The scoring of these dimensions took place through deliberative dialogue within an interdisciplinary team of researchers taking into account their joint research results. The integration method can be seen as dialogue-based but it also has aspects of a model-based integration. The approach was used to rate the current situation as well as several scenarios of the future situation. Besides being an integration approach, The Sustainability Wheel proved as well to be a valuable communication tool.

You will recognise The Sustainability Wheel in the Water Scarcity Case. For in-depth information on the approach and its application consult the publication:

Schneider, F. et al. (2015). Assessing the sustainability of water governance systems: the sustainability wheel. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 58, 1577–1600. DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2014.938804