Vulnerability–resilience indexes fail to grasp all dimensions of sustainability, whereas sustainable development has gained momentum. We fill this gap with a hierarchical multimetric composite index (Net Vulnerability Resilience Index: NVRI) whose robustness relies on a mathematical algorithm...

Since the publication of path-breaking contributions on the governance of environmental resources in the early 1990s many political initiatives have been taken, many governance experiments have been run, and a large multidisciplinary field of research has opened up. The aim of this...

Chemical industry's managers have developed since mid-1970' a management and prevention risk policy named “Responsible Care”. This policy was a first draft for a sustainable management even if these two concepts were not exactly synonymous. Through genealogy of this practice and its use in a...

A status-quo analysis of the way the question of the multifunctionality of agriculture and of rural space is dealt with in policy evaluation is given. Focus is on conceptual frameworks, tools and methods. The paper builds on a review of policy evaluation practice and experiences in six different...

This article provides a critical appraisal of the concept of sustainable development in light of climate change. As the latest climate change science indicates strong effects of anthropogenic activity on global warming, we review the pros and the cons of prioritizing development over...

Chemical industry's managers have developed since mid-1970' a management and prevention risk policy named “Responsible Care”. This policy was a first draft for a sustainable management even if these two concepts were not exactly synonymous. Through genealogy of this practice and its use in a...

Recent advances in evolutionary theory have important implications for environmental economics. A short overview is offered of evolutionarythinking in economics. Subsequently, major concepts and approaches inevolutionary biology and evolutionary economics are presented andcompared. Attention is...

Generally, food policy is required to play an important role in the following aspects for society, i.e., to ensure food security, to cope with structural changes in food consumption and to realise sustainable development. However, the issues of food security and sustainability have different...

The chronic crisis affecting modern agriculture is indicating that the present paradigm of food production may not be viable in the long term to insure food security on a global scale, despite the brilliant outcomes achieved through the last several decades. Dwindling fossil fuel resources are...

This paper proposes the description and analysis of the dynamics of an innovation process, which, over ten years ago, enabled a mineral water company to start protecting its underground water and to overcome a classical negative externality problem of no point-source nitrogen pollution. Based on...