A Systematic Review of Urban Sustainability Assessment Literature

Matthew Cohen

doi:10.3390/su9112048

Abstract

As the world rapidly urbanizes, there is much focus on achieving sustainability outcomes within cities. Accomplishing this goal requires not only envisioning sustainable cities and implementing strategies, but it also demands assessing progress towards sustainable urban development. Despite a growing literature on sustainability assessment, there is room to further understand the application of sustainability assessment in urban contexts. This paper presents a systematic review of urban sustainability assessment literature to (1) identify the most common methods used for urban sustainability assessment, (2) identify the most common framings for urban sustainability assessment, and (3) identify the most common categories for organizing indicators that measure urban sustainability. This research finds that urban sustainability assessment in general lacks a unifying framing and that it could be better aligned with common sustainability principles. The paper provides recommendations for future urban sustainability assessment research, including the employment of mixed-methods research among other strategies. In closing, this research offers a generic framework around which to structure urban sustainability assessment and within which to assign indicators for measuring progress towards sustainable urban development.

Highlights

As the world rapidly urbanizes, achieving sustainability in cities is quickly becoming a global concern [1,2]
This research does so through a systematic review of urban sustainability assessment literature to meet the following objectives: (1) identify the most common methods used for urban sustainability assessment, (2) identify the most common framings for urban sustainability assessment, and (3) identify the most common categories for organizing indicators that measure urban sustainability
By reviewing the literature guided by these objectives, this paper reports on general themes and trends in urban sustainability assessment literature

Summary

Introduction

As the world rapidly urbanizes, achieving sustainability in cities is quickly becoming a global concern [1,2]. 54% of the world population was urban in 2014, and the global urban population is projected to reach 66% by 2050 [3]. Given the concerted efforts to achieve urban sustainability, there is a need to set goals and targets and track progress towards urban sustainability outcomes. In this light, sustainability assessment provides a framing for better defining and understanding the sustainability enterprise for multiple domains, including urban development [5,6,7,8]

Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion