Theoretical and methodological basis for measuring the sustainable development of regional systems

The growing interest in sustainable development issues leads to an increase in the number of studies devoted to its measurement. On the one hand, measurement could translate theoretical concepts into observable quantitative characteristics, which contributes into more reasonable and prepared management of economy. On the other hand, many approaches to measurement complicate this process since they call for sufficient preparedness to analyze, select, and use a huge number of methods, approaches, and methods of measurement. The purpose of this study is to analyze approaches to measuring sustainable development, arrange them by features, and then combine them into a conceptual model that reflects their place and role in the overall system of knowledge about measuring sustainable development. This research refers to a review of scientific papers on sustainable development, comparative analysis, generalization, systematization, and conceptual modeling as the main research methods. The research originally 1) updates the existing classification of measurement methods; 2) describes and visualizes the conversion of diverse statistical data, qualitative evaluative opinions, theoretical hypotheses, etc. into a quantitative information basis for well-informed managerial decisions. As a result, the study considers the key approaches to the development of systems for measuring sustainable development, their main advantages and disadvantages. Alternative logical groupings of indicators of sustainable development are looked at. An algorithm for index measurement and index classification by principles are given. The most common and theoretically substantiated indices are systematized. A logical-semantic model of the methodological relationship of approaches to measuring sustainable development has been developed. The methodological apparatus for processing the measurement results is examined. The paper visualizes and describes a mechanism of transformation of scientific and socio-economic assessment into a quantitative information basis to be applied by stakeholders, including decision makers, the public, researchers, etc. The study theoretically and practically systematizes, refines many approaches and concisely presents them with visualization elements that significantly simplify the perception of complicated information.