Trade-offs among urban sustainability, pollution and livability in European cities

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the interactions between urban sustainability, urban pollution and city livability. Specifically, we propose a theoretical model that explains how the three pillars of urban sustainability (economic, environmental, and social) and urban pollution interact and simultaneously affect city livability. These relationships are tested using a structural equation model (SEM) in a sample of responses from 40,798 citizens in 79 European cities and secondary data on urban pollution. Overall, our findings show that although urban economic sustainability is positively associated with urban pollution, it is indirectly negatively associated with urban pollution via urban environmental sustainability and positively associated with city livability via urban social sustainability. In addition, we found that urban social sustainability is positively associated with city livability, while urban pollution is negatively related to city livability. Therefore, our results advance the knowledge on the interplay and trade-offs between the pillars of urban sustainability and their impact on city livability.