Urban Sustainability Assessment Research Articles

Stakeholder-Based Optimal Indicators for Urban Sustainability Assessment in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study from the City of Moundou in Chad

Over the last two decades, scientific studies have increasingly highlighted the vulnerability of cities to global changes, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where climate phenomena and urbanization are intensifying. These realities necessitate a reassessment of current urban management models in order to reaffirm the central role of cities in promoting sustainability. In this context, establishing a robust scientific foundation for evaluating the transition processes of cities towards sustainability is essential. This article presents a methodology developed to select and validate indicators, taking into account local issues and the needs expressed by stakeholders. The research was conducted using a mixed-methods approach, which included a literature review, consultations with populations from five study districts, analysis of the indicator needs of development stakeholders, adoption of two methods, and validation of the indicators by a group of experts. The outcome of this research is a set of 20 indicators organized into five dimensions: environmental, social, economic, built environment, and cultural. The analysis of the proportional distribution of these indicators across dimensions reveals a notable predominance of the social dimension, which accounts for 35% of the indicators, including key indicators such as access to potable water, electricity, education, and healthcare services, inter alia. The environmental and built environment dimensions each comprise 20% of the indicators, encompassing indicators such as the preservation of natural resources, waste management, land use management, and flood management, among others. The economic and cultural dimensions represent 15% and 10% of the selected indicators, respectively. These data indicate that achieving sustainable urban development within the context of this study requires a focused effort on enhancing the performance of these indicators, with substantial efforts needed in the social domain. It is of paramount importance to incorporate these indicators into the decision-making processes related to urban development planning in Moundou and other cities in the region, as they provide valuable scientific insights crucial to the pursuit of sustainability.

Urban sustainability in social housing environments: A spatial impact assessment in Bogotá, Colombia

As cities adapt to the challenges of rapid urbanization, sustainable development goals, and post-pandemic realities, understanding the intricacies of urban sustainability is vital. This study presents a spatial impact assessment of urban sustainability, focusing on the distinctive requirements of social housing urban environments in Bogota, Colombia. By contextualizing this study in the ever-evolving post-pandemic paradigm, it depicts the current conditions of the city towards future development scenarios. The sustainability assessment relies on a set of 11 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), emphasizing the particular needs of social housing and offering a comprehensive analysis that links the conditions of the urban environment, environmental quality, and social well-being, all under the umbrella of Sustainable Development Goal 11. Specific spatial analysis using GIS tools (e.g. spatial interpolation, network analysis, multispectral imagery analysis), statistical analysis, and data engineering were employed to evaluate the selected KPIs. This evaluation revealed distinct spatial patterns of socioeconomic inequity, primarily impacting areas with a higher concentration of social housing within the city. These findings highlight critical areas requiring strategic attention to promote the city's sustainability transition. Key insights indicate that areas lacking sufficient access to green spaces and essential urban services, alongside higher pollution levels, are associated with lower social well-being, reduced perceptions of security, and are characterized by high population density and a significant presence of social housing. These results, available on an interactive web-GIS app, underscore the imperative for policies and planning that not only address the provision of social housing but also ensure a sustainable built environment, shaping a sustainable, inclusive, safe, and resilient future. The methodology and insights presented in this study are also applicable and scalable to similar urban contexts globally.

Urban sustainability assessment: An analysis of how weighting and aggregating coefficient system was used in the development of SUCCEED assessment tool for developing countries

The development of a weighting and aggregating coefficient system used in urban sustainability assessment tools is a process that needs well-defined procedures using a series of steps, methodology, and a systematic approach in its development. The development of assessment tools has been successful in developed countries but developing countries would need to have a structured process that will assist in the development of an assessment tool that is tailored to its environs. This paper aims to understand the various weighting and aggregating coefficient systems employed in the development of sustainability assessment tools. Alongside using these findings to understand how these weighting and aggregating coefficients can be adopted in the development of sustainability assessment tools for developing countries based on their differences, advantages, and disadvantages. Qualitative Content Analysis based on a systematic review of existing literature was used in this study to understand various weighting and aggregating coefficients. It is imperative to note that this research will focus on how assessment tools are developed with a clear focus on sustainability assessment weighting and aggregating. The study also further analyses how a case study SUCCEED (Sustainable Composite Cities Environmental Evaluation and Design Tool) has benefited from the adoption of equal weighting and additive aggregation methods based on validation carried out. The findings of this research show that the selection of weighting and aggregating systems is defined by the relevance, importance, and purpose of the assessment tool. It also develops a guide/recommendations on the process utilised in the development of assessment tools for developing countries.

Assessment of Urban Sustainability and Coupling Coordinated Development: An Empirical Study in Anhui Province, China

The conflict between economic development and environmental degradation has significantly impeded urban development. Currently, the Chinese government is actively promoting the comprehensive transformation of new-type urbanization. This study measured the quality of urbanization and its degree of coupling coordination in 16 cities in Anhui Province from 2010 to 2020, utilizing 32 indicators across six dimensions: economic development (ED), infrastructure (INF), population development (PD), social development (SD), environmental protection (EP) and urban–rural integration (URI). Additionally, a novel method of sequential relationship analysis, oriented towards “interaction–change” was introduced to calculate indicator weights, which take the interactive degree among various indices and dependencies between neighboring cities into account. The results indicate that urban development in Anhui Province is imbalanced due to a low degree of resource matching. However, there is a positive trend in the relationship between urbanization quality and economic development. Furthermore, although the coupling coordination degree of urbanization quality in most cities fluctuates at different scales, it is still necessary to narrow and optimize the gap between subsystems. For one thing, the above achievements may provide reference for breaking through the traditional static weighting method from the theoretical level. For another, it can also provide decision-makers with valuable insights to establish an intercity complementary management system, so as to achieve sustainable development across the entire region.

Assessing the urban sustainable development level in the Henan region of the Yellow River Basin based on spatial data

Urban sustainability assessment is fundamental to ensuring the long-term resilience of social, environmental, and economic development. This study proposed a comprehensive evaluation system to assess the sustainable development of the HYRB during 2000–2020 through an integrated sustainable development index (SDI) based on entropy method with spatial data. The major findings of this study were as follows: (1) The SDI of the HYRB increased from 0.438 to 0.489 from 2000 to 2010, while the SDI slightly decreased by 0.026 during 2010–2020. (2) The highest SDIs of 2000 (0.502), 2010 (0.529) and 2020 (0.480) were found in Anyang. Conversely, the lowest SDIs of 2000 (0.390), 2010 (0.459) and 2020 (0.417) were located in Zhengzhou. (3) The SDI variation across regions became more evident in the later study period. This study offers a comprehensive assessment of sustainability levels in the HYRB, providing useful implications for its future sustainable development.

Kentsel Sürdürülebilirlik Değerlendirme Araçlarının Kent Markalaşması Üzerindeki Etkilerinin İrdelenmesi: YeS-TR Örneği

Increasing competition between cities has led to the acceleration of branding efforts and to be treated as a commodity. In order to create a strong city brand, it is important to analyze the city well and shape all city components in a symbolic way. This is recognized as a challenging and costly process in dynamic, complex and multifaceted cities. Urban sustainability assessment tools allow cities to be addressed in a systematic, holistic and controlled manner. At the same time, it allows to reach a city that has adopted the principles of sustainable development and is resistant to climate change with an objective approach. Many urban sustainability assessment tools such as LEED, BREEAM, DGNB have been developed around the world. One of these assessment tools is YeS-TR, which has been developed in our country. Within the scope of this study, the effects of YeS-TR urban sustainability assessment tool on city branding are examined.

Identification of densely populated-informal settlements and their role in Chinese urban sustainability assessment

ABSTRACT China’s National Plan on Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development identified the upgrading of urban shantytowns, urban villages, and dilapidated houses as an important initiative to implement the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11.1. However, informal housing being used as temporary housing by low-income families (especially in megacities) has resulted in informal settlements that are usually densely populated, dilapidated, and disorganized. Identifying targets based on deep learning and single very high-resolution images remains a challenging task. Here, we used multi-source geographic information data and machine-learning methods to identify and compare the distribution of densely populated‒informal settlements (DPISs) and measured population ratios within the urban areas of three Chinese first-tier cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Our results indicate that DPISs occupy 1.98%, 0.67%, and 3.95% of the total area in these study regions, with population densities of 42,800 people/km2, 7,100 people/km2, and 20,800 people/km2, respectively. Further, significant variability existed in the distribution of DPISs, population ratios, and composition of the study areas. DPISs reflected the rapid urbanization process in China and the planning of the city, which can be used as an indicator of sustainable urban development in China.

The Spatiotemporal Variation Characteristics of Urban Sustainability Based on the SDGs in Yangtze River Delta, China

At present, most developing countries need to improve the quality of the built environment by means of large-scale infrastructure construction, thereby promoting rapid urbanization. The quality of the built environment (QU) and its environmental pressure (PU) have become our primary focus to achieve a globally acknowledged vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this study, we proposed an overall workflow by combining the proven urban sustainability (SU) assessment tool with the evaluation process and the analysis of the spatiotemporal dimension to investigate the urban characteristics of the 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta. Our results showed an upward trend of urban sustainability from 2010 to 2018, but there are still 19 cities with unsustainable urbanization processes. The megalopolis is rapidly progressing toward an imbalanced state. Specifically, the urban sustainability of the southern region performs better than the northern region, coastal cities perform better than the inland cities, and the regional peripheral cities perform better than the inner cities. Across the 41 cities in the delta, five different relational trends between QU and PU have been found to predict their future development. The results of this research will help decision-makers to coordinate the future development of regional integration between cities and to target the alleviation of the adverse chain reaction brought about by the situation of imbalance or further improving urban sustainability.

Urban sustainability assessment at the neighborhood scale: Integrating spatial modellings and multi-criteria decision making approaches

Urban sustainability is a highly complex concept that requires integrative assessment frameworks to determine the measures that should be adopted to achieve a sustainable city. The present study aimed to conduct a spatially-based sustainability assessment at the neighborhood scale in Isfahan Metropolitan, a rapidly urbanizing region in the center of Iran, using an integrated framework of spatial modeling and multi-criteria decision-making analysis (MCDA). As a first step, the spatial distribution of a set of indicators was provided in three distinct categories, ecosystem service, environmental hazard, and urban structure using various spatial modeling approaches. After standardizing the indicators and assigning appropriate weights to them, different multi-criteria decision analysis models were used to aggregate the indicator layers. The sustainability layers based on ecosystem services, environmental hazards, and urban structure were integrated using MCDA models. The results indicated that less than 3% of the total neighborhood area were categorized as almost sustainable, while 36.1% and 59.4% were respectively scored as poor and moderate sustainable area. None of the neighborhoods was categorized in the sustainably good class, whereas 1.73% of the area was unsustainable. Moreover, the urban structure-based aspect was found to be the most sustainable, while the urban environmental hazards dimension exhibited the lowest sustainability, with 71.98% falling into the poor and unsustainable category. The spatial investigation showed that the central parts of the city were more sustainable than the urban periphery. In conclusion, a spatially-based sustainable assessment of Isfahan City at the neighborhood level can provide urban planners with valuable insights to undertake operational actions and achieve sustainable development goals.

Beyond the building scale: addressing energy related issues in urban areas’ environmental performance assessment methods

Built environment’s sustainability enhancement imposes the consideration of all its scales and dimensions, ranging from the materials-to the city scale. Several methods and tools have been developed for the environmental performance assessment of larger than the building entities of the built environment. In this paper, the analysis evolves around the way environmental performance assessment tools for urban development address energy-related factors. In the first part of this work, widely known urban sustainability assessment tools at the neighbourhood scale (BREEAM Communities, LEED for Neighborhood Development, CASBEE for Urban Development, DGNB for Urban Districts) are systematically reviewed; some of their basic features are presented. This review includes elements regarding these tools’ development and application field, as well as parameters related to their structure and methodological basis. The second part of the analysis focuses on the examination of the reviewed systems regarding the inclusion of energy-related issues (e.g., energy consumption and production) into their structure and assessment process. Specifically, the way the related parameters are integrated within each method’s framework and the basis for their assessment (e.g., approaches, criteria, indicators) are detected. Similarities/differences among the presented methods and the examined methodological aspects can be identified both regarding the general features and approaches, and, where possible, at a more detailed level.

Urban Sustainability Assessment Tool for Hillside Planning, Design, and Development

Urban Sustainability Assessment Tool for Hillside Planning, Design, and Development

Valuation of socio‐economic indicators for progressing urban sustainability under distinctive rubrics

AbstractThe key objective of the study is to collect the factors which play an important role in the city's sustainability and implementation advantages for the development of cities in future. This article develops an urban sustainability assessment framework by giving GIS‐based decision support tools to guide cities toward sustainability. Multicriteria analysis was used as the decision support system and provides an analytical framework for assessing differences in the level of criteria and ranking decision options. It has the capability for assessment of urban sustainability because it brings sustainability criteria from three pillars of sustainability, environmental, social, and economic, which provide an integrated approach for assessment of urban sustainability. The GIS‐based multicriteria analysis serves as a sustainability support system that maps urban sustainability and the underlying environmental, social, and economic conditions. The results from the study show that the four cities ‐ Faisalabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, and Multan ‐ have better economic conditions while only Lahore and Faisalabad showed social progress and the remaining cities showed less suitability. For the environmental index, none of the cities attained high suitability. Lahore, Faisalabad, and Rawalpindi showed better conditions than Gujranwala and Multan. It is demonstrated that Punjab cities have made progress in economic condition and improvement in social condition but have poor environmental condition. In the study, the environmental dimension has indicators which have more impact on the urban sustainability. Environmental degradation is observed in all selected regions and not a single region showed suitability toward its environmental condition and due to this none of the cities gained suitable scores for urban sustainability. Consequently, urban sustainability is a multidimensional and dynamic process that needs regular evaluation and monitoring. Thus, this article contends that the tools help to highlight and emphasize those areas that need guidance in achieving urban sustainability.

Evaluating Urban Sustainability in Uzbekistan: A Novel Formula for Empirical Analysis

Urban sustainability has become a critical issue in the past few decades due to rising urbanisation and mounting environmental problems. This article aims to develop a novel formula for assessing urban sustainability in Uzbekistan, a country with very little recent research in the field of sustainable development. The formula was created specifically for the setting of Uzbekistan to evaluate urban sustainability by taking into account a variety of socioeconomic and environmental aspects specific to the discussed region. The article provides a thorough review of the research on urban sustainability, with an emphasis on evaluation techniques and their use in the Uzbek context, which not only contributes to the development of the theoretical framework for the research but also identifies the knowledge gaps in the assessment of urban sustainability in Uzbekistan. Utilising this newly developed formula, an empirical analysis of urban sustainability in Uzbekistan urban settings was conducted, offering comprehensive insights and suggestions for urban planning and policymaking. The results of this research are expected to advance the discussion about urban sustainability on a global scale as well as act as a catalyst for additional research in the area.

Assessment of Urban Sustainability—The Case of Amman City in Jordan

Accelerated urbanization causes an increasing number of city dwellers, insufficient and overburdened infrastructure and services, and negative environmental impacts and climate change impacts. Measuring the city’s progress toward sustainability is essential to support decision-making and policy development. This study aims to establish an assessment and monitoring method of sustainable development goals at the city level, focusing on identifying indicators that are compatible with the city context to update and monitor progress toward sustainability. A review of the literature on sustainability assessment methods and tools is presented. A comprehensive framework for city sustainability assessment and a checklist of indicators. Amman city in Jordan is suggested. A Voluntary Local Review (VLR) report of Amman was presented to the United Nations in 2022. The report reviews Amman’s progress toward achieving the SDGs; however, it lacks clear and a quantitative assessment of the city’s sustainability, particularly SDG 11, which this paper seeks to address. The checklist survey questions were formulated according to the sub-indicators of the UN-Habitat SDG indicator metadata. The checklist was distributed to respondents from the Municipality of Amman and related organizations to the VLR. The respondents evaluated the sub-indicators of Goal 11 and gave performance level scores in three levels: low, average, and optimal. The sum of the indicator values is quantitatively presented in tables. The findings reveal that the indicator values of the city sustainability assessment framework, as applied in this paper, can be adjusted within the characteristics and constraints of the local context in a two-year observation period to provide updated data for decision-makers regarding the current status and future implementation of sustainability agendas.

Analyzing the Feasibility of Integrating Urban Sustainability Assessment Indicators with City Information Modelling (CIM)

Sustainability assessment methods have gained the attention between urban planners and policymakers since they promote a comprehensive view of the cities. Intelligent solutions, enabled by advances in information technologies, can accelerate progress in achieving sustainability goals. In this context, City Information Modelling (CIM) emerges as a tool to facilitate urban sustainability assessment implementation. Accordingly, the main question aimed to address in this article is whether conventional sustainability assessment tools can be adapted to the CIM framework. In this regard, this study extracts the most consensual list of indicators from four sustainability assessment methods: BREEAM-C, LEED-ND, SNTool, and SBToolPT Urban, to identify a clear set of key sustainability priorities. The selected sustainability assessment methods are pioneering and often used for performance assessment at the urban scale. Furthermore, the indicators extracted from the assessment methods are measurable and can present accurate results. The study analyses the potential of the selected indicators to be calculated in CIM. The final product of the article is identifying the indicators that are adaptable to be used in the CIM approach.

Urban sustainability assessment based on sentiment analysis and entropy weight method: case study in Liaoning, China

Urban sustainability assessment based on sentiment analysis and entropy weight method: case study in Liaoning, China

Urban sustainability assessment for vernacular and traditional built environments

Despite the growing literature on sustainability assessment in the urban context, the resulting approaches and methods utilise several differing theoretical frameworks and lack a unifying vision and modus operandi. Innumerable tools and instruments have been developed for particular purposes and rather narrow goals. Curiously, these tools and instruments remain unable to trace and assess sustainability in vernacular forms and traditional built environments, even though environments such as these demonstrably possess sustainable principles beside their aesthetic values and spatial qualities.This paper reviews the theoretical background underpinning the current sustainability assessment methods in the urban context to identify their general limitations and their specific applicability to vernacular and traditional built environments. Also, this paper discusses some of the cultural and spatial qualities of traditional built form to identify its embedded sustainable strategies and practices. The paper concludes with an outline conceptual framework intended to develop general sustainability principles for traditional built forms in response to their natural and cultural contexts.A literature review of the concepts of sustainability assessment in the urban context and embedded sustainable principles in vernacular and traditional built form is followed by a thematic analysis of its limitations, which feeds into this conceptualisation of a new, principle-based framework. A total of 10 principles of sustainability are proposed to assess sustainability in traditional built environments, taking into account the variation of locality and site-specific context.

Assessment of urban sustainability in collective residential neighborhoods A case study of the neighborhood of 400 dwellings in the city of M'sila

Urban sustainability has become a prominent element in the discussion of urban policies and the expression of sustainability policy in planning and urban development decisions, as society has become more aware of the consequences of reckless urban development decisions, as well as the need to protect the environment from deterioration due to economic growth and irrational consumption of resources, as urban sustainability is seen as the main tool for this protection.
 In this context, this research paper aims to present a vision that leads to an attempt to reach an assessment of urban sustainability in collective residential neighborhoods in Algeria through a case study of one of the most important major neighborhoods in the city of M'sila, a neighborhood of 400 social housing.
 In view of the nature of our research, which is concerned with sustainability and its practices, policies and concepts in the world and at the national level, which by nature contain qualitative and quantitative data, and therefore we will use the integrated (mixed) research method as a method through which to measure.
 We will use the most famous American system, LEED-ND, to measure the sustainability of residential neighborhoods, because it contains many mandatory requirements and credits.
 The results of the research will determine the extent to which collective residential neighborhoods respond to environmental sustainability standards in Algeria, which will help in the future in redressing future urban development.

Assessment of Urban Agglomeration Ecological Sustainability and Identification of Influencing Factors: Based on the 3DEF Model and the Random Forest.

The evaluation of ecological sustainability is significant for high-quality urban development and scientific management and regulation. Taking the Chengdu urban agglomeration (CUA) as the research object, this paper combined the three-dimensional ecological footprint model (3DEF) and random forest to evaluate the ecological sustainability of the study area and identify the influencing factors. The study results indicate that: (1) From 2000 to 2019, the ecological sustainability of Chengdu urban agglomeration was divided into four types, and the overall ecological sustainability of this region showed a downward trend. The areas with higher ecological sustainability were mainly distributed in the northern part of the urban agglomeration (Mianyang City) and the southern part (Leshan City and Ya'an City), while the cities in the central region (Chengdu City, Meishan City, and Ziyang City) had lower ecological sustainability. (2) The main factors affecting the ecological sustainability of urban agglomerations are industrial wastewater discharge, industrial smoke (powder) dust discharge, and green coverage of built-up areas, followed by urbanization and population size. Through this study, we have two meaningful findings: (a) Our research method in this paper provides a new way to study the factors affecting the ecological sustainability of urban agglomerations. (b) The results of the identification of influencing factors might be the reference for urban environmental infrastructure construction and urban planning.

Integrated multivariate data analysis for Urban Sustainability Assessment, a case study of Casablanca city

• The satellite images and census data are good information sources for urban management and development. • The PCA method is robust, flexible, and provides an accurate outcome in the case of a large number of indicators. • The population density is one of the main driving forces of urban sustainability. • The urban sustainability is inadequate in 50% of Casablanca city containing two-thirds of the whole urban population. In the last few years, the world's urban population has significantly increased and it is expected to undergo a continuous accelerated growth. This urban revolution confronts us with real challenges to promote urban sustainable development and has significant effects on socioeconomic development and the urban environment. This research suggests an approach to assess urban sustainability (US) based on the integration of census information, GIS, and remote-sensing data, which can support urban planners and decision-makers in broad environmental and socioeconomic perspectives. Five environmental indices retrieved from Landsat-8 imagery were coupled with eight general census socioeconomic indicators using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). PCA produced three components, and each one was considered a unique urban sustainability aspect covering social, economic, and/or environmental dimensions. Furthermore, the obtained result was exploited to develop a synthetic US index at the commune level with the main aim to assess urban sustainability and its spatial distribution. The outcome depicts that the US is adequate in 50% of Casablanca city, which contains nearly the third of the urban population. This research remains so promising and can be considered by urban planners as a reference to take necessary actions to improve sustainability, resilience, and well-being in the most vulnerable communes.