Assessing the sustainability related concepts of urban development plans in Eastern Europe: A case study of Romania

Abstract

• Urban Development Plans were analyzed for sustainability related terms for Romania. • Keyword matching and subsequent qualitative assessment was made for selected terms. • Several key terms were missing from the UDPs and the use of the terms is largely descriptive. • University-civil society-decision making partnerships are needed for future UDP developments. Urban sustainability relies on strategic documents such as the Urban Development Plans (UDPs). The major aim of this research is to use keyword matching to assess key sustainability terms in UDPs for Romanian urban areas. We found a low level of accessibility of the UDPs, with 11 counties (out of 42) having no available UDPs and 20% of the accessed UDPs being outdated. 83% of the 201 search terms were identified in the UDPs. The categories covering culture, economy, society, health, risks and hazards had the highest sustainability scores while the categories institutions, research and innovation, climate and waste had low scores. We found higher average sustainability scores for the topics nature, culture and system approach in recent UDPs compared to older UDPs. A qualitatative analysis of 10 terms showed that their actual use in the text had mostly low to moderate relevance for sustainability. There is an urgent need for strengthening the collaborative links between the urban area governing institutions and academic institutions addressing the sustainability of social-environmental systems in order to mainstream key and emerging sustainability concepts into UDPs and to enforce the sustainability of future urban development.