Performance Towards Sustainability: A Regional Assessment Supported by the Geographic Information Systems

The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has been identified as a methodological trend in Sustainability Assessment (SA). Although SA is carried out at varying scales, the application of GIS support is a more interesting option on a regional scale, as it is at these levels where the interaction between ecological functions and human activities is most intensely perceived. In this sense, this work aims to broaden our understanding of the SA approach at regional scales, proposing and applying a geospatialized performance assessment framework toward Sustainability. To this end, we propose a Brazilian metropolitan region has been selected as the primary study area, applying indicators that are aligned with global goals for sustainable development. In addition, we use a Multi-criteria Spatial Decision Support System model fully integrated with GIS software for processing and analysis. The result of this research is a performance index for sustainability that incorporates diverse dimensions of the human-nature relationship through the processing of georeferenced data.