A framework for assessing the sustainability of a water resources system

Preliminary results from the development and application of a framework for quantifying relative sustainability is presented, with emphasis on the development of a sustainability criterion. An existing failure-related sustainability criterion based on the estimation of reliability, resilience and vulnerability is adjusted and combined with stochastically generated time series of monthly runoff to give more robust results. Furthermore, the criterion is extended to encompass inter- and intra-generational equity. Based on the criterion's inability to embrace factors where a failure threshold level cannot be assigned, it is argued that emphasis should be shifted to the use of a broader sustainability decision-making framework in which the adjusted sustainability criterion is an important component.