Strong versus weak sustainability indexes in a conurbation context. A case example in Spain

Abstract

Sustainability assessments have been traditionally divided in two groups based on the weak and strong sustainability paradigms, with little connection between them. However, we argue that these two paradigms may offer complementary visions of the problem, and thatt their joint use might help to assess correctly the sustainability of our systems. Therefore, a first step would be to measure the extent to which the two paradigms offer complementary or contradictory pic-tures. In this paper we apply both paradigms, represented by the ISEW and emergy indicators, to the Spanish Costa del Sol. Our results show that the possibility of cooperation between weak and strong paradigms is not only real but also very useful. On the one hand, ISEW can offer a more accurate measure of wealth than GDP. On the other hand, emergy contributes with its carrying capacity indicators to the knowledge about the environmental load that socio-economic activity is imposing on the ecosystems.