The country has aimed at sustainable urban development in order to tackle all the various economic, social and environmental challenges facing cities. Integrated policy responses and innovative measures have been introduced to help revitalise city centres and cope with suburban growth, rising motor traffic and social change. But the use of water in agriculture is essential to meet growing demands for food, and also provides environmental and social benefits. This publication presents leading environmental indicators from the OECD Core Set and thus contributes to measuring environmental performance and progress towards sustainable development. Across the OECD, farmers are voluntarily forming community-based associations to help achieve a more sustainable agriculture.
Water is a vital resource for human health, economic development and environmental quality.
Over the past three decades, OECD Member countries have made major strides in the management of their water resources. The current state of living marine resources is a problem requiring urgent solutions. However, the selection of effective management instruments is a difficult task, since the effect of each type of instrument depends on a variety of biological, technological, economic and social factors. Since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, sustainability has emerged as an over-arching policy goal in the OECD Secretariat and in its Member countries. To resolve global environmental problems, national and local governments alike must begin integrating environmental concerns into urban policies and into a range of sectoral policies, such as trade and tax.