ASSESSING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF A REGION IN THE LIGHT OF COMPOSITE INDICATORS

In this paper, an attempt is made to present a method to assess the sustainable development of a region. The method is based on adapting the multi-attribute utility theory to the concept of "composite indicator" of the region under concern; a composite indicator represents a weighted number of components or sub-indicators. Comparisons are made with the standard method of ranking and the axiomatic multi-criteria method. It is shown that the suggested method is more practical and feasible as it allows the studying of the potential improvement that can be performed in order to heighten the status of the sustainable development of a region, in the long and short run. Finally, a tentative quantitative index to evaluate the sustainability of a region is proposed.