Das Projekt "Foerderung der Aktivitaeten fuer Nachhaltigkeit mittels Indikatoren auf lokaler Ebene in Europa" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Technische Universität Wien, Institut für Städtebau, Raumplanung und Raumordnung durchgeführt. Objective: Promoting Action for Sustainability Through Indicators at the Local Level in Europe (PASTILLE). Problems to be solved: Sustainability indicators have been widely adopted as a key policy tool for moving towards sustainable development but their widespread adoption is not without problems. The key emerging problem is: How can sustainability indicators be used to 'make a difference' to decision-making? The project addresses this key problem by focusing on the use of local sustainability indicators at the urban level to assist decision making to achieve sustainable city planning and resource management. This is one of the fastest growing areas of indicator use and it is also one which raises most directly the problem of relating indicator development and design to changing decision making and behaviour. The involvement of local communities - broadly defined to include business and citizen groups - is often an integral element of devising sustainability indicators. How this relates to the efficacy of indicators as a policy tool is a key issue of urban governance, as well an environmental governance. The integration of local sustainability indicators as decision making tools into the hierarchy of national and supranational indicators and strategies will also be addressed, relating as it does to the application of the subsidiarity principle. Scientific objectives and approach: The overall objective of the project is to analyse the implementation of local sustainability indicators programmes, in a variety of contexts, and to develop models, methods and techniques to ensure that these indicators impact on decision making at the municipality level. In addition, the project has four more detailed objectives. First, it will define the range of roles that local sustainability indicators can play and the variation in processes of indicator development. Second, it will examine the processes of indicator development and use in the partner cities and relate this to the contextual factors operating in each case. Third, it will identify the role of local sustainability indicators in examples of public policy decision making and development within each partner city, and assess their impact and effectiveness. Fourth, it will disseminate research results in order to facilitate more effective urban governance and more relevant strategic European policies in the context of subsidiarity. The research will be undertaken by a consortium drawn from four countries: UK, France, Austria and Switzerland. In each country there will be a local research partnership comprising a municipality and a research competence (sometimes a joint competence). The localities involved are: London (specifically, the London Borough of Southwark), Le Grand Lyon, Vienna and Winterthur. Prime Contractor: London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Geography; London.