Dealing with time is intimately linked to sustainability, because sustainability, at its core, involves long-term ethical claims. To live up to them, decision and policy-making has to consider long-term development of society, economy, and nature. However, dealing with time and such long-term development is a notoriously difficult subject, both in science and, in particular, in practical decision and policy making. Rooted in philosophical and scientific reasoning, this book explores how the concept of time can be incorporated into effective practical action. The book describes a system and uses case studies to help sustainability practitioners and researchers consider the long-term consequences of our actions in a methodical way. The system integrates scientific and practical knowledge about time and temporal developments to help break down the sometimes overwhelming complexity of sustainability issues. Combining theoretical conceptual thinking and practical applications, this book will be of great interest to students and researchers of sustainability science, environmental sciences, sustainable development, environmental economics, political sciences and practical philosophy.

Founded in 1991, the UFZ Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig- Halle was the first and only research institute in the Hermann von Helm- holtz Association of German Research Centres (HGF) to be exclusively dedicated to environmental research. Nowadays environmental research calls for interdisciplinary and applied approaches. At the UFZ, landscape- based research and environmental medicine are combined within interdisci- plinary research topics with social sciences and ecological economics. Economic and sociological environmental research at the UFZ is geared towards the model of sustainable development. Research is currently fo- cused at a local and a regional level. In order to ensure the transferability of regional solutions, work is pursued against the background and in awareness of global ecological interrelations as well as national and international con- ditions. In July 1998, the UFZ's Department of Ecological Economics and Envi- ronmental Sociology organised an international UFZ Summer School in Leipzig, Germany, dedicated to "Ecological Economics and Regional Sustainability - New Frontiers in Interdisciplinary Research?" Its focus was on the scientific exchange of ideas and experience related to regional sus- tainable development. The papers concentrated on innovative approaches towards bridging the gap between the natural and the social sciences in ap- plied research projects.

Dieses Buch wendet sich explizit der zentralen Frage zu, die Wissenschaftler und Politiker sowie jedermann, der um die Probleme von Umweltverschmutzung und Schadigung der Natur Sorge tragt, beschaftigt: Wie kann eine Entwicklung unseres sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Systems gewahrleistet werden, die dem Schutz von Umwelt und Natur nachhaltig Rechnung tragt? Auf dem Weg zur Beantwortung dieser Frage wird die Bewertung von Natur als Kernproblem identifiziert. Aus der interdisziplinaren Analyse sowohl oekonomischer als auch alternativer Bewertungsverfahren werden Schlussfolgerungen fur die Moeglichkeiten und Grenzen einer Operationalisierung des Leitbildes einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung gezogen. Damit leistet das Buch einen wichtigen konzeptionellen Beitrag fur die OEkologische OEkonomik.