Sustainable regional development is the application of sustainable development

Sustainable development

Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...

 at a regional

Régional

Régional Compagnie Aérienne Européenne, or Régional for short, is a subsidiary airline wholly owned by Air France which connects hubs at Paris, Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, and Bordeaux to 49 airports in Europe. The airline operates in Air France livery, retaining its name in small titles and logo on...

, rather than local, nation

Nation

A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...

al or global level. It differs to regional development

Regional development

Regional development is the provision of aid and other assistance to regions which are less economically developed. Regional development may be domestic or international in nature...

 per se, as the latter is a term used more generally to describe economic development that emphasises the alleviation of regional disparities. While regional development has an economic and equity emphasis, sustainable regional development seeks to incorporate ecological concerns.

Sustainable regional development has particular currency in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, where the Institute for Sustainable Regional Development has been established (1997) for the purpose of developing integrated, multi- and inter-disciplinary strategies for environmental and socio-economic change in regional Australia.