A holistic analysis of sustainability metrics at an urban district scale

Abstract

The presented work provides an overview of sustainability dimensions relevant to urban planning at an urban district level along multiple ressource axis. An analysis of innovative urban development projects and a literature review on city district sustainability were coupled with city grading schemes. Interviews with municipal stakeholders allowed to determine the extent to which these dimensions are already integrated into planning practices, and if not, what the barriers to the implementation of sustainable solutions are, and what the requirements for the development of new tools and methods to enable a holistically approach to sustainable planning are. Based to this, current planning practices prioritize a reduction of building energy demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during the use phase, with limited or no consideration of dimensions such as GHG from building construction, rainwater retention or urban green for optimizing urban microclimates. However, awareness for such dimensions is rising: this can be seen in pilot projects where the scope of assessment was expanded to include for instance aspects of mobility and rainwater management. It furthermore shows that an approach to optimise planning procedures along multiple dimensions is still absent from many urban planning processes, even though mindsets seem to be shifting gradually.