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Measuring sustainability is an integral part of decision-making processes in order to promote sustainable development. The present paper focuses on sustainability indicators as these are measured on local level and explores two main issues: firstly, the subjective measurement of indicators focusing especially on social dimensions of sustainability, secondly, the incorporation of local perceptions in sustainability assessments. These two issues are explored in the Asopos River basin in Greece, an area where significant environmental degradation has been observed in the past decades and is also under financial pressure due to the ongoing national recession. A large-scale research study was conducted measuring environmental, economic and social indicators while, at a second stage, a model was developed, estimating new indicators that incorporate local communities' perceptions on what they considered as important for their area. The results of the study reveal that the most important indicators for the sustainable development of the area, according to locals' perceptions, are environmental quality as well as quality of life. By contrast, trust in local and central institutions and also local enterprises were not considered as important by locals. These results illustrate the importance of combining global and national scale assessment with locally focused social measurements of sustainability in order to better understand what is important for local communities prior to embarking on public policy planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Managing Protected Areas (PAs) is a challenging task, and globally many instruments have been utilised for this purpose. Existing research demonstrates that the effectiveness of these instruments is highly dependent on their social acceptability among local communities resident within PAs. Consequently, investigating local attitudes and perceptions of Protected Area (PA) policies has been emphasised in recent studies. Drawing on empirical work conducted in two National Parks including river delta ecosystems designated as Ramsar wetlands in northern Greece, this paper examines local residents'' perceptions of three hypothesized policy options (regulatory, market-based and participatory) for Park management. The influence of social capital elements (social trust, institutional trust and social networks) on residents'' perceptions is explored. The findings reveal a high degree of importance attached by resident communities to Park designation in both PAs, though residents'' perceptions of the proposed management options varied. The regulatory option was regarded as the least restrictive, while the most restrictive was perceived to be the market-based option. However, greater benefits were identified by residents from the market-based option, while the fewest benefits were considered to arise from the proposed regulatory option. Furthermore, local residents'' perceptions were significantly shaped by the proposed management and decision-making structure offered under each policy option. The influence of different social capital elements on residents'' perceptions also varied in the study sample, with social trust and institutional trust positively correlated with the benefits that were perceived to arise from the different policy options. Moreover, when social capital was measured as an aggregate indicator at the level of the individual, it was positively correlated with perceived environmental benefits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Several factors have been identified as determinants of willingness to pay (WTP), including socio-economic and environmental elements. The present article aims to investigate the influence of individual social capital on willingness to pay for environmental goods. In particular, through an empirical study, a multi-dimensional measurement of social capital is conducted and its influence on WTP for water quality improvement is explored. According to the results of the survey it is observed that social capital is a significant explanatory parameter of WTP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]