This paper shows that the concepts and methodology contained in the system theory and operations research are suitable for application in the planning and control of the sustainable development. The sustainable development problems can be represented using the state space concepts, such as the transition of system, from the given initial state to the final state. It is shown that sustainable development represents a specific control problem. The peculiarity of the sustainable development is that the target is to keep the system in the prescribed feasible region of the state space. | Yugoslav Journal of Operations Research 21 (2011) Number 1, 1-10 DOI: SYSTEM THEORETIC APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS Vladan BATANOVIĆ Institute Mihajlo Pupin, Belgrade, Slobodan GUBERINIĆ Institute Mihajlo Pupin, Belgrade, Radivoj PETROVIĆ Institute Mihajlo Pupin, Belgrade, Received: January 2011 / Accepted: February 2011 Abstract: This paper shows that the concepts and methodology contained in the system theory and operations research are suitable for application in the planning and control of the sustainable development. The sustainable development problems can be represented using the state space concepts, such as the transition of system, from the given initial state to the final state. It is shown that sustainable development represents a specific control problem. The peculiarity of the sustainable development is that the target is to keep the system in the prescribed feasible region of the state space. The analysis of planning and control problems of sustainable development has also shown that methods developed in the operations research area, such as multicriteria optimization, dynamic processes simulation, non-conventional treatment of uncertainty etc. are adequate, exact base, suitable for resolution of these problems. Keywords: Sustainability, sustainable development, systems approach, multiple criteria optimization. MSC: 93-99, 90-99. 2 V. Batanović, S. Guberinić, R. Petrović / System Theoretic Approach 1. INTRODUCTION The idea of development in general terms had not existed practically until the second half of the twentieth century. However, problems related to the economic growth and social development in general had become very serious in the second half of the past century, so the governments of many states, the United Nations, a large number of institutes and researchers in various science fields were engaged in solving .
