Shanmuganathan, S2014-03-262014-03-262014-03-262014-03-262014-03-262014-03-262013-03-282013-03-28In proceedings (CD version) of the 4th International Symposium on Digital Earth, Tokyo, Japan, 28-31 March 2005.https://hdl.handle.net/10292/7040In this paper, initially the circumstances that led to a need for ecologically sustainable development and the progress achieved in this regard are briefly looked at. Thereafter, applications of an unsupervised algorithmic neural network to aid sustainable development by modelling environmental, social and economic conditions of complex natural habitats using measurable variable data are reviewedNOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in (see Citation). The original publication is available at (see Publisher's Version).Sustainable developmentSelf-organising mapsEcological modellingConference ContributionOpenAccess