CONSENSUS AS THE MEASURE OF SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainable development is the new water resources paradigm of the 199 0s. Yet its practical implications seem to be elusive. Metrics for mea suring the level of sustainability are eagerly sought. It is very diff icult to capture the important features, and maintain many of the valu ed details, of environmental and social systems when complete or appro priate economic accounting is attempted. A much more transcendent and flexible metric may be consensus. Consensus as a sustainability metric describes the level in which stakeholders are satisfied with a soluti on to a question. Consensus assumes that an appropriate group of stake holders is able to collaborate in assessing proposed solutions to envi ronmental problems or development initiatives. It also assumes that th e collective best which a group of stakeholders has to offer implicitl y provides insight to the needs of future generations. This paper desc ribes an approach for assessing a level of consensus. The benefits are : estimation of areas of common understanding; and clarification of co nflicting values.