The Development of DISC (Decision Integration for Strong Communities): An Agile Software Application of Sustainability Indicators for Small and Rural Communities

Small towns and rural communities, like many larger cities, are looking for ways to strengthen their economies, improve quality of life, and build on local assets. They are seeking to create their own path to sustainability that fits their size, geography, and resources and also preserves their distinctive characteristics. To address this need, the Decision Integration for Strong Communities (DISC) application was developed to offer relevant information curated to assist smaller communities with addressing their sustainability goals. To ensure DISC is useful to a variety of smaller and rural communities, EPA project staff reached out to small numbers of interested communities and potential users at different steps of the development process. In late 2019, the DISC application was beta tested by potential users and is now downloadable upon request to collaborating communities.