This dissertation develops a systems theory perspective of the concept of sustainable development, and explores a systematic approach to employ this concept to an economic analysis. An examination of interpretations, foundations and the framework of the concept of sustainable development is conducted; and an empirical application of this concept through a multiple criteria evaluation of agricultural management systems in Richmond County, Virginia is presented.

Various interpretations of the concept of sustainable development are found to be based on Six "E" considerations: Economic, Energy, Environmental, Ecological, Equity, and Ethical. These interpretations with their different foci constitute a three dimensional view of economic development while neo-classical economics has a one dimensional view. The concept of sustainable development recognizes absolute resource scarcity, which is represented by the limited quantity of resources for inputs to economic systems; and is represented by the limits of the assimilative capacity of the environment for waste discharges. Advocates of the capacity of the environment for waste discharges. Advocates of the absolute quantity limit of resources generally employ the second law of thermodynamics, but a close examination indicates that this application of the second law is incorrect. The inapplicability of the second law thus widens the range of alternative choices that can be included in the design of a sustainable development path. For example, low-input sustainable agriculture loses its self-evidence meaning of sustainability. Its sustainablity should depend on its economic, environmental, and social values in different areas.

To employ a multiple criteria approach to evaluating economic and environmental impacts of agricultural management systems in Richmond County, Virginia, a multi-objective dynamic programming model; coupled with the Chemical, Runoff, and Erosion from Agricultural Management Systems simulation model; is developed. The results of the model suggest an improvement in economic and environmental benefits can be achieved through use of a mixture of legume and non-legume cover crops rather than use of poultry litter as fertilizer source or simply lowering fertilizer application rates. The results also indicate there is no possibility of achieving a 40% reduction of nitrogen loading as required by Chesapeake Bay Agreement by employing the any of 14 agricultural management systems analyzed in this study.