1. Introduction: sustainable development indicators 2. The surface mining process 3. Environmental, economic, social impacts: oil sands, heavy oil, and surface mining projects 4. Preselecting sustainable development indicators 5. Preselecting process methodology and indicators 6. Sustainable development indicators description 7. The Canadian oil sands: sustainable development indicators and the surface mining operations 8. Measuring sustainability of the oil sands prijects: introducing the WA-PA-SU project sustainability rating system