Sustainability Footprints, Calculus, and Infrastructure Systems Evaluation

The heart of sustainable development lies in the ability to secure a progressively better quality of life for communities while preserving the natural assets that contribute inputs and absorb the byproducts of development. Because different regions around the world may have different regional development priorities, it is reasonable to expect that they could also have different priorities when they consider sustainable development. This paper presents the concepts of the sustainability footprint and sustainability footprint management as tools to introduce spatial and temporal flexibility in meeting sustainable development goals when stakeholders have notably different sustainable development priorities. Such tools can be quite helpful in reaching a consensus on interim goals for sustainable development across regions or other stakeholder entities that have widely different priorities and yet remain committed to global sustainable development in the long term.