Implementing the Integrated Social Sustainability Assessment to Norway: A Citizen-Centric and Expert-Weighted Approach

Abstract

To achieve sustainability, more economic and environmental initiatives, projects, and policies must have a positive impact on society, advance social justice, and enhance the general well-being of people and communities. This study proposes a quantitative and qualitative framework to assess social sustainability in different urban regions. A multi-category approach is used to determine what categories and indicators of social sustainability city governments and academia should consider to ensure that their policies and projects align with community values. The next step involves assessing residents’ satisfaction through citizen participation. This framework, entitled the “Integrated Social Sustainability Assessment (ISSA)”, was applied in three zones of the Furuset area in Oslo. The results of the three diagrams show how community strengths and weaknesses can be identified, allowing projects to be prioritized in a way that benefits citizens in the long term and provides a comparative score. This framework provides policymakers with useful tools and guidelines for creating policies and projects that are sustainable, equitable, and capable of meeting the needs of their communities in a measurable manner.