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. Ferreira, Ana & Pinheiro, Manuel Duarte & de Brito, Jorge & Mateus, Ricardo, 2018. "Combined carbon and energy intensity benchmarks for sustainable retail stores," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PB), pages 877-889.
    2. Zdenka Gyurák Babeľová & Augustín Stareček & Dagmar Cagáňová & Martin Fero & Miloš Čambál, 2019. "Perceived Serviceability of Outplacement Programs as a Part of Sustainable Human Resource Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Muhammad Riaz & Wojciech Sałabun & Hafiz Muhammad Athar Farid & Nawazish Ali & Jarosław Wątróbski, 2020. "A Robust q-Rung Orthopair Fuzzy Information Aggregation Using Einstein Operations with Application to Sustainable Energy Planning Decision Management," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-39, May.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Joan Hereu-Morales & César Valderrama, 2022. "Towards a Sustainability-Based Society: An Analysis of Fundamental Values from the Perspective of Economics and Philosophy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-14, July.
    8. Carlota García Díaz & David Zambrana-Vasquez & Carmen Bartolomé, 2024. "Building Resilient Cities: A Comprehensive Review of Climate Change Adaptation Indicators for Urban Design," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Stephen C. L. Watson & Adrian C. Newton, 2018. "Dependency of Businesses on Flows of Ecosystem Services: A Case Study from the County of Dorset, UK," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-14, April.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. Ileana Iocola & Frederique Angevin & Christian Bockstaller & Rui Catarino & Michael Curran & Antoine Messéan & Christian Schader & Didier Stilmant & Florence Van Stappen & Paul Vanhove & Hauke Ahneman, 2020. "An Actor-Oriented Multi-Criteria Assessment Framework to Support a Transition towards Sustainable Agricultural Systems Based on Crop Diversification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-29, July.
    13. Hamed Gholami & Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman & Safian Sharif & Jauharah Md Khudzari & Norhayati Zakuan & Dalia Streimikiene & Justas Streimikis, 2020. "A General Framework for Sustainability Assessment of Sheet Metalworking Processes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-18, June.
    14. Sneha Kaira & Oz Sahin & Anisur Rahman & Sherif Mohamed, 2022. "An Integrated DPSIR-SD Framework for Sustainability Assessment of Roads in Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-31, June.
    15. 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).
    16. Firas M. Sharaf, 2023. "Assessment of Urban Sustainability—The Case of Amman City in Jordan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, March.
    17. Eleni Iacovidou & Jonathan Busch & John N. Hahladakis & Helen Baxter & Kok Siew Ng & Ben M. J. Herbert, 2017. "A Parameter Selection Framework for Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, August.
    18. Jia Guo & Shiyan Ma & Xiang Li, 2022. "Exploring the Differences of Sustainable Urban Development Levels from the Perspective of Multivariate Functional Data Analysis: A Case Study of 33 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-19, October.
    19. 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.
    20. Rebekka Küchler & Birte Maja Nicolai & Christian Herzig, 2023. "Towards a sustainability management tool for food manufacturing small and medium‐sized enterprises—Insights from a Delphi study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 589-604, March.

    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.