The big challenges in modeling human and environmental well-being
F1000Research
Short Title:
F1000Res
Format:
Journal Article
Publication Date:
2016/04/13/
Sources ID:
86691
Visibility:
Public (group default)
Abstract:
(Show)
This article is a selective review of quantitative research, historical and prospective, that is needed to inform sustainable development policy. I start with a simple framework to highlight how demography and productivity shape human well-being. I use that to discuss three sets of issues and corresponding challenges to modeling: first, population prehistory and early human development and their implications for the future; second, the multiple distinct dimensions of human and environmental well-being and the meaning of sustainability; and, third, inequality as a phenomenon triggered by development and models to examine changing inequality and its consequences. I conclude with a few words about other important factors: political, institutional, and cultural.