The process of planning for sustainable development: dimensions, comparisons, and insights

Sustainable development has been praised as an important new planning paradigm. However, there has been little evaluation of the impact of the concept on the planning process. The purpose of this article is to provide an assessment of the key dimensions of planning for sustainable development, and to use these dimensions in a comparative assessment between communities in the USA that integrated sustainable development into their local comprehensive plan and communities that did not. Results of the analysis indicate limited impact of the concept on the planning process, though process dimensions provide measures for tracking future influence.