title: The ecological sustainability trigon--a proposed conceptual framework for creating and testing management scenarios.
abstract: The ability to achieve ecological sustainability and the sustainable development of marine and estuarine ecosystems constitutes a complex major challenge and depends on many driving forces, often conflicting with each other. In particular, there are three major drivers: (a) the search for human well-being, health and safety, (b) the maintenance of ecological sustainability and environmental equilibrium, and (c) the tolerance of an increasing human population pressure and demand for wealth creation. We propose here the use of a conceptual guidance tool--the ecological sustainability trigon (EST)--as a means of building and testing environmental management scenarios. Although it requires further testing, the EST allows us to (a) address those three major drivers using human society view as a common currency, and (b) describe our behaviour, energetics (economy) and dynamics through ecological theory. Moreover, the EST appears promising for gap analysis and the means to address new research questions.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine Research, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, 3004-517 Coimbra, Portugal. jcmimar@ci.uc.pt
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Basset
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brey
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elliott
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control