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In response to a United Nations (UN) mandate – the National Council for Sustainable Development (NCSD) at the Executive Yuan in Taiwan has taken great strides in the setting up of an effective means of evaluating the sustainability of the island’s national development. The NCSD has been extremely proactive in promoting efforts towards the development of a set of national sustainable development indicators (SDIs) for use in Taiwan and in putting into place the relevant mechanisms for recording, measuring, announcing and reviewing these indicators. The resultant SDIs will, henceforth, serve as the basis for regular assessment of the sustainability of national development in Taiwan and will serve the dual functions of policy evaluation and policy guidance for all relevant decision-making processes. In its efforts to achieve this mandate, the Sustainable Vision Working Group (SVWG) under the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) at the Executive Yuan, invited more than 50 governmental departments and related agencies to establish the Working Group for Sustainable Development Indicators (WGSDI). Based on the results of an integrated research project initiated and sponsored by the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan in 2002, the WGSDI reviewed each of 112 indicators initially selected by members of the ‘Sustainable Taiwan Evaluation System’ research group, led by Dr. Jiunn-rong Yeh, the Minister without Portfolio. After considering the feasibility and stability of data collection, the significance of correlation with public policy, the possibility of international collaboration, and other factors, the WGSDI selected a set of 40 meaningful and representative indicators for assessing sustainable development and creating the system of Sustainable Development Indicators (SDI) for Taiwan. Taiwan’s system of SDI, including six core dimensions, namely ecological resources, environmental quality, social pressure, economic pressure, institutional response and urban sustainable development, are divided into two categories: Island Taiwan Indicators and Urban Taiwan Indicators.
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