Sustainable development: a definition and assessment Sustainable development: a definition and assessment Peer-Reviewed Journal Publication Δημοσίευση σε Περιοδικό με Κριτές 2015-11-072003enThe average Greek produces daily 0.8 kg of solid waste and 22.7 kg of CO2. If he eats a 250 g beefsteak produced in Brazil, he has destroyed 5m2 of tropical forest. This amount of meat requires 750 L of water and 1.7 kg of grain. The list may go on almost ad infinitum. Is this behavior sustainable? To answer this question a new model that defines and measures sustainability is introduced. It uses fuzzy logic to combine data about a host of indicators related to two basic components, Ecosystem and Human System. The former is the logical resultant of four elements, Air, Land, Water, and Biodiversity, whereas the latter results from the logical combination of Policies, Wealth, Health, and Knowledge. Each of the eight components results from the combination of any number of primitives (basic indicators). Sustainability is assessed on a 0 to 1 scale. Examples show that no country is sustainable in the sense of this model.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 42345-355 Kouikoglou Vasilis Κουϊκογλου Βασιλης Yannis Phillis Φιλλης Ιωαννης Luc Andriantiatsaholiniaina Development, Sustainable Ecologically sustainable development Economic development, Sustainable Economic sustainability ESD (Ecologically sustainable development) Smart growth Sustainable economic development sustainable development development sustainable ecologically sustainable development economic development sustainable economic sustainability esd ecologically sustainable development smart growth sustainable economic development