Abstract
Neighbourhood Sustainability Assessment Tools (NSA tools) are fast becoming the principal framework for urban planners and developers for promoting urban sustainability. The majority of NSA tools promote a specific type of urban development that effectively excludes regeneration projects from the urban sustainability conversation. Given that the world’s megacities are mostly built, it is argued that it is essential that strategies for global sustainability consider that urban development is focussed internally to address existing, under-serviced communities in particular need of meaningful intervention and sustainable redevelopment frameworks. The paper uses existing knowledge on NSA tools to highlight the shortcomings of outcomes-based approaches to urban governance and builds the case that the technocratic “one-size-fits-all” approach adopted by many tools inadequately accounts for underlying institutional, social and economic arrangements that influence urban development, making them inappropriate for application in both planned and existing communities. The paper proposes that urban redevelopment strategies need to be derived from the urban realities of a particular place or context. Such strategies must be grounded in principles of urban governance, participatory action and an understanding of market dynamics. Without these collaborative procedural frameworks, urban regeneration projects will continue to inadequately transition towards more comprehensive sustainability.
Highlights
Sustainable development has become the defining challenge of the 21st Century
The above raises important issues regarding the sustainability of existing communities, and those which lack the resources to employ interventions that meet the rigid criteria of rating systems. This means that the role of regeneration in the pursuit of urban and global sustainability is largely ignored by NSA tools
Based on the critique of NSA tools, possible new avenues are suggested for NSA tools which focus more on the dynamic process of urban development, and the social and economic issues embedded within the urban context
Summary
Sustainable development has become the defining challenge of the 21st Century. The concept was conceived through the Brundtland Report, which defined it as development that “ . . . seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future” [1] (p. 39). The above raises important issues regarding the sustainability of existing communities, and those which lack the resources to employ interventions that meet the rigid criteria of rating systems In effect, this means that the role of regeneration in the pursuit of urban and global sustainability is largely ignored by NSA tools. The paper evaluates what the tools’ shortcomings mean for urban regeneration In this vain, it questions the underlying ideals that support the development of tools as expert-driven, outcomes-based approaches that neglect the importance of institutional development, process leadership, empowerment and collaboration. Based on the critique of NSA tools, possible new avenues are suggested for NSA tools which focus more on the dynamic process of urban development, and the social and economic issues embedded within the urban context This will be more appropriate for driving sustainability policy and practice, in existing communities in need of renewal, and proposed ones
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