Integrated data and utilities to support sustainable planning

Sustainable development aims to achieve social justice, sustainable economies and environmental sustainability. However, developed nations use sustainability levels that are different from the equivalents of undeveloped countries. The origin of these differences depends on standard quality of life that is permitted in each country obviously. Principles of sustainable development are invariants but, in the last period and in the developed nations, public opinion is more sensitive to environmental problems. So, different weights for each element of triad (social justice, economy, environment) are adopted in each country. But many problems about energy, environment, levels of poverty, loss of biodiversity, climate change, ozone layer, etc., cannot be resolved by a country or nation alone. A minimum value of sustainability must be agreed from countries united in world summits. Models have been achieved to monitor sustainability and to assure development. Then, many indicators have been proposed as products or inputs of these models. Models together with indicators define an information system. This is the main instrument to support decisions about complex problems in sustainable development. Between different information systems, Territorial Information Systems (TIS) are more adapted to manage environmental data. In the last period we used TIS support to examine new questions about different fields that are all into sustainable development area: air pollution and urban transportation, agriculture and farm activity support, environmental impact, etc. Finally, we present some examples of our TIS applications: planning support dedicated to farm activity, planning rural area to guarantee effective biological culture and urban transport. Planning support consists of several parameter controls and of a programmed activity necessary to increase quality of products. Planning rural areas supports politician decision and association of farms. Sustainability of transport represents a problematic issue, because its regulation involves other fields such as environment and economic structure and the same transport sustainability defines complex interaction between mobility, commerce, social justice and development.