Identifying critical natural capital - Conclusions about critical natural capital

This paper summarises the main results of the CRITINC project and briefly describes the case studies in which the CRITINC methodology was applied. These related to air quality, river systems, forests, urban areas, coastal wetlands and agricultural and water resources. The paper concludes that the methodology provides a way of systematically considering different uses of and impacts on the environment, with a view to evaluating whether environmental functions are being used sustainably and the extent of any sustainability gap, identifying the source of environmental pressures, and monitoring whether policies aimed at environmental improvement are being effective. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.