The Assessment of Urban Environmental Impacts through the City Environmental Footprint: Methodological Framework and First Approach to the Built Environment

Abstract

In 2015, the United Nations chose cities as target of the 11th Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to “make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable”. Indeed, the increasing urbanization worldwide poses serious threats for the related environmental burdens, but also opportunities for cities to be a driver for change and privileged places for interventions in favor of sustainability. In order to achieve such ambitious targets, holistic methodologies are necessary but lacking to date. The main objectives of this paper are: i) providing strong and working points of current quantitative methods available for environmental assessment and insights in the methodological challenges; ii) presenting the concept of a new methodological approach, the City Environmental Footprint (City EF), as proposal for a comprehensive urban environmental assessment; iii) preparatory approach of City EF to the urban building stock in Leuven (Belgium).