IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i21p15425-d1270342.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Review of Current Evaluation Urban Sustainability Indicator Frameworks and a Proposal for Improvement

Author

Listed:
  • Oriol Gavaldà

    (Next Generation Cities Institute, University Concordia, Montreal, QC H3H 2L9, Canada)

  • Christopher Gibbs

    (Next Generation Cities Institute, University Concordia, Montreal, QC H3H 2L9, Canada)

  • Ursula Eicker

    (Next Generation Cities Institute, University Concordia, Montreal, QC H3H 2L9, Canada)

Abstract

This paper addresses the link between data, metrics, and the paths from cause to effect in urban sustainability and livability frameworks. The first section thoroughly discusses the different existing frameworks for evaluating sustainability and livability goals for urban communities. In the results section, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of a comprehensive list of frameworks that evaluate sustainability and livability in cities is elaborated, with a thorough post-process of the different schemes from an epistemological perspective to analyze the subjectivities implicit in any urban-level sustainability framework. Finally, in the discussion section, two main aspects are tackled. The first is the development of a proposal for a set of indicators that incorporates the best of the different frameworks analyzed. The second aspect deals with the methodology of implementation of these frameworks. Here, the authors point out the weaknesses of current urban-level sustainability frameworks and their main components, and they propose a set of criteria to overcome the different detected gaps. All these steps have helped the authors establish a clear roadmap for developing the platform TOOLS4Cities that can help set a future reference methodology for urban sustainability evaluation.

Suggested Citation

  • Oriol Gavaldà & Christopher Gibbs & Ursula Eicker, 2023. "A Review of Current Evaluation Urban Sustainability Indicator Frameworks and a Proposal for Improvement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-22, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:21:p:15425-:d:1270342
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/21/15425/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/21/15425/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Denis Michalina & Peter Mederly & Hans Diefenbacher & Benjamin Held, 2021. "Sustainable Urban Development: A Review of Urban Sustainability Indicator Frameworks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Sala, Serenella & Ciuffo, Biagio & Nijkamp, Peter, 2015. "A systemic framework for sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 314-325.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abdallah Alaoui & Moritz Hallama & Roger Bär & Ioanna Panagea & Felicitas Bachmann & Carola Pekrun & Luuk Fleskens & Ellen Kandeler & Rudi Hessel, 2022. "A New Framework to Assess Sustainability of Soil Improving Cropping Systems in Europe," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Oriana Gava & Fabio Bartolini & Francesca Venturi & Gianluca Brunori & Angela Zinnai & Alberto Pardossi, 2018. "A Reflection of the Use of the Life Cycle Assessment Tool for Agri-Food Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. David Tremblay & François Fortier & Jean‐François Boucher & Olivier Riffon & Claude Villeneuve, 2020. "Sustainable development goal interactions: An analysis based on the five pillars of the 2030 agenda," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 1584-1596, November.
    4. Victoria Vicario-Modroño & Rosa Gallardo-Cobos & Pedro Sánchez-Zamora, 2023. "Sustainability evaluation of olive oil mills in Andalusia (Spain): a study based on composite indicators," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 6363-6392, July.
    5. Rui Meng & Lirong Zhang & Hongkuan Zang & Shichao Jin, 2021. "Evaluation of Environmental and Economic Integrated Benefits of Photovoltaic Poverty Alleviation Technology in the Sanjiangyuan Region of Qinghai Province," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-19, November.
    6. Ferretti, Paola & Zolin, Maria Bruna & Ferraro, Giacomo, 2020. "Relationships among sustainability dimensions: evidence from an Alpine area case study using Dominance-based Rough Set Approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    7. Firas M. Sharaf, 2023. "Assessment of Urban Sustainability—The Case of Amman City in Jordan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, March.
    8. Lhermie, Guillaume & Wernli, Didier & Jørgensen, Peter Søgaard & Kenkel, Donald & Lin Lawell, C.-Y. Cynthia & Tauer, Loren William & Gröhn, Yrjo Tapio, 2019. "Tradeoffs between resistance to antimicrobials in public health and their use in agriculture: Moving towards sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-1.
    9. Natália M. P. de Alencar & Martin Le Tissier & Shona K. Paterson & Alice Newton, 2020. "Circles of Coastal Sustainability: A Framework for Coastal Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-27, June.
    10. Rafael Horn & Hanaa Dahy & Johannes Gantner & Olga Speck & Philip Leistner, 2018. "Bio-Inspired Sustainability Assessment for Building Product Development—Concept and Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-25, January.
    11. Dinesh Seth & Minhaj Ahemad A. Rehman, 2022. "Critical success factors‐based strategy to facilitate green manufacturing for responsible business: An application experience in Indian context," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 2786-2806, November.
    12. Moreno-Miranda, Carlos & Dries, Liesbeth, 2022. "Integrating coordination mechanisms in the sustainability assessment of agri-food chains: From a structured literature review to a comprehensive framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    13. K. Koppiahraj & S. Bathrinath & V. G. Venkatesh & Venkatesh Mani & Yangyan Shi, 2023. "Optimal sustainability assessment method selection: a practitioner perspective," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 324(1), pages 629-662, May.
    14. Tygran Dzhuguryan & Agnieszka Deja, 2021. "Sustainable Waste Management for a City Multifloor Manufacturing Cluster: A Framework for Designing a Smart Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-25, February.
    15. Charlotte Glennie, 2020. "Growing Together: Community Coalescence and the Social Dimensions of Urban Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-25, November.
    16. Adam Przybyłowski & Agnieszka Kałaska & Piotr Przybyłowski, 2022. "Quest for a Tool Measuring Urban Quality of Life: ISO 37120 Standard Sustainable Development Indicators," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-17, April.
    17. Saba Alnusairat & Jenan Abu Qadourah & Rawan Khattab, 2023. "Assessing the Future City Post COVID-19: Linking the SDGs, Health, Resilience, and Psychological Impact," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-24, January.
    18. Tobias Engelmann & Daniel Fischer & Marianne Lörchner & Jaya Bowry & Holger Rohn, 2019. "“Doing” Sustainability Assessment in Different Consumption and Production Contexts—Lessons from Case Study Comparison," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-25, December.
    19. Vasiliki Kioupi & Nikolaos Voulvoulis, 2019. "Education for Sustainable Development: A Systemic Framework for Connecting the SDGs to Educational Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-18, November.
    20. Matthew Cohen, 2017. "A Systematic Review of Urban Sustainability Assessment Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-16, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:21:p:15425-:d:1270342. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.