Environmental, economic and socio-institutional context of the sustainability index: Evidence from Italy

The aim of this study is to define a methodology for assessing sustainability at different levels of detail. For the definition of the conditions of sustainability, the approach known as the triple bottom line was used. The study developed concerns the identification of a set of environmental, economic, and socio-institutional indicators and the elaboration of the same in a synthetic analysis index, organized in a hierarchical structure. An index for measuring irrigation sustainability has been built. This index, called the Sustainable Irrigation Index (SII), allows monitoring and assessment of the sustainability of irrigation activities and policies, at various territorial analysis scales, varying from the regional to the agricultural company. We proceeded with the creation of a multi-criteria spatial decision support system (GIS-based). The implementation of the index took place using the GIS IDRISI software. Finally, the index was applied to the concrete case of a Province of the Calabria region