pThis handbook provides researchers and students with an overview of the field of sustainability indicators SIs as applied in the interdisciplinary field of sustainable development. The editors have sought to include views from the center ground of SI development but also divergent ideas which represent some of the diverse, challenging and even edgy observations which are prominent in the wider field of SI thinking. ppThe contributions in this handbook pp- clearly set out the theoretical background and history of SIs, their origins, roots and initial goalspp- expand on the disciplines and modalities employed to develop SIs of various kindspp- assess the various ways in which SI data are gathered and the availability over space and time and quality issues that surround them pp- explore the multiplex world of SIs as expressed in agencies around the world, via examples of SI practice and the lessons that have emerged from thempp- critically review the progress that SIs have made over the