Langaas, S. 1997. A Report on the Project on Indicators of Sustainable Development.
Sustainable development is by nature hundred per cent temporal as implied by the term 'development'.
Thus, for a region, whether a municipality, country, transboundary region, continent or the whole world, there can be important spatial heterogeneity or differences, which in many cases deserve special attention. Surprisingly, the spatial dimension has often been neglected or been given low priority by groups preparing environmental or sustainable development indicators. The reasons for this are several. One main reason is missing or low capacities and skills to handle georeferenced data and information among those in charge of indicator work. This is increasingly becoming a reduced concern with the advent of more user-friendly GIS software, and also with the increasing tendency of merging traditional GIS software with commonly used 'office type' software.