Sustainability Atlas of Texas Ecoregions

Abstract

Since the introduction of the triple bottom line sustainability assessment accounting, a variety of approaches have been developed to quantify sustainability using the three axes of social, economic and environmental sustainability. The aim of this atlas is to assess the sustainability of Texas natural ecoregions: the Piney Woods, the Gulf Prairies and marshes, the Post Oak Savanah, the Blackland Prairies, the Cross Timbers, the South Texas Plains, the Edwards Plateau, the Rolling Plains, the High Plains and the Trans-Pecos, by identifying a set of indicators. These are unemployment, children in poverty, severity of housing problems, daily PM2.5 concentrations, population affected by drinking water violation, total water use, organic production, non-obesity and attainment of post-secondary education. Despite the limitations of inherent inaccuracies and temporal limitation, the assessment points to issues that negatively affect the environmental sustainability of Texas ecoregions. Continual assessment is recommended to optimize the atlas.