Research work at both international and national levels is focusing on developing sustainable development indicators. Their validity depends on a participative approach based on the economic, social and environmental issues at stakes for the development of a country, area or specific economic sector. The question of the sustainability of intensive agriculture is briefly broached here and indicators showing the issues highlighted are put forward consideration by the actors involved

Numerous definitions of droughts which are based on different climatological time series have been in use. In this paper, the development of drought indicators by using different time series is described. These drought indicators were developed for use by the Department of Natural Resources in the State of Indiana, U.S.A. The second part of the study deals with an analysis of the consistency of results obtained by using different time series, in order to select two or three of the commonly available series for drought analysis. Past drought data are used to test the performance of the drought indicators. As a result of this study, three month precipitation, monthly river flow and the Palmer Hydrologic Drought Index series are recommended for operational use.

Après un bref rappel sur la notion d'équilibre forêt-giber, le point est fait sur les différentes méthodes de suivis par bio-indicateurs des populations de cervidés en milieu forestier. L'intérêt et les limites de ces suivis sont discutés pour le cas des populations de cerfs et de chevreuils. Il apparaît que le taux de dégât présente un moindre intérêt en tant qu'outil de suivi des populations que l'observation de la flore au sens large. | After a brief review about the balance between forests and cervids, the author does a synthesis on the different methods based on biological indicators which are actually used to monitore cervids populations. The limit of the described methods are discussed. It appears that the survey of damage level doesn't seem to be a convenient indicator compared to the study of the browsing pressure on the woody plant after winter.

Se diagnostica el estado del recurso raya volantín en el área de estudio, efectuando evaluaciones indirectas de stock y considerando el análisis integrado de indicadores biológico-pesqueros-ambientales y evaluaciones de stock, definiendo los niveles de explotación biológicamente sustentables, en base a indicadores y puntos biológicos de referencia definidos para el efecto, considerando evaluaciones de riesgo e incertidumbre | Is diagnosed kite line resource status in the study area, making indirect stock assessments and considering the integrated analysis of biological indicators and environmental and fishery-stock assessment, defining the biologically sustainable harvest levels, based on indicators and biological benchmarks defined for this purpose, considering risk assessment and uncertainty. | Unpublished

Survey‐based welfare indicators can fluctuate over time in ways which have little to do with macroeconomic changes in the economy. So basing policy decisions on short‐term movements in such welfare indicators can be hazardous. There was a sharp increase in India’s poverty measures in the aftermath of the mid‐1991 crisis and the ensuing stabilization program. However, only one‐tenth of the increase in measured poverty is explicable in terms of the variables one would expect to transmit the shock to poor people. Poverty measures soon returned to their pre‐reform levels, belying the notion of a structural break induced by reforms.

Developing and implementing landscape management planning is an important step towards shifting the traditional focus of forest management from managing resource flows, such as timber and wildlife habitat, to managing forests. This paper describes and applies a forest landscape management design process with a GIS-based landscape management model (LANDMAN) that incorporates harvesting intervention patterns and performance indicators using spatial structure measurements. In a case study, one small landscape was identified and quantified using the spatial structure measurements. The structural effects of four different harvesting patterns (scatter, negative edge distribution, edge progressive, and nuclei progressive) on landscape fragmentation were explored. Performance indicators quantified structural changes over time. Degree of structural change varied greatly among the four harvesting patterns. The scatter harvesting pattern created fragmented landscapes, while the nuclei progressive pattern significantly reduced fragmentation. Likewise, the negative edge distribution and edge progress harvesting patterns also tended to reduce fragmentation and mimic patterns of natural disturbances such as fire and insects. In any event, the case study demonstrated that geographically based harvesting patterns and performance indicators could provide an opportunity to design management for the creation of alternative forest landscapes. The paper concludes that forest landscape management, with its spatial structure focus, is a desirable evolution.

The object of the pressented work was to select approbriate brewery yeast for obtaining spirits from fruit. Based on denatations conduced during a three day fermentation process, biotechnological indicators were evaluated. This allowed to determine the usefulness of examined strains for the fermentation process of fruit pulp. The properties of the obtained distillates were evaluated by chromatographic analysis and organoleptic grading

The research was conducted in the region of eastern Herzegovina which encompasses three elevations (lower - Mediterranean, middle - hilly, high - mountainous). The research material has been provided by detailed recording of the conditions and production results for the year of 1994 on 33 agricultural holdings (11 in each zones). Three main groups of similar types of agricultural holdings were established in the zones based on the share of the main branches and production lines in the main indexes of the business success. These are as follows: group of the related types 1 (cattle breeding), group of the related types 2 (cattle breeding and tobacco), and group of the related types 3 (tobacco and fruit growing and wine growing viticulture). By testing the statistical importance of differences in business success indicators among studied groups of related types, it was determined that the most successful farms were of the group 3. According to the second criteria, comparing the farm types, within each three zones separately, the differences in organizational - economic characteristics and business success indicators were determined. Based on all this, it was concluded that there is mutual dependence of farm type and economic result, which is mostly expressed in the mountainous zone of the research area.

The Intersection Point Method (IPM) is a new method for the determination of an analyte in the presence of several unknown interferences. The method is based on the Apparent Content Curves (ACC) from derivative signals. To test the proposed procedure an analysis of mixtures of indicators with strong spectral overlapping was carried out. Results obtained agree with the theoretical values. Besides, the determination of caffeine in several pharmaceuticals by IPM provides good results.