IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v30y2012i3p429-447.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Achievements and Opportunities in Initiating Governance for Urban Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Riley Smith
  • Arnim Wiek

Abstract

The concept of urban sustainability governance has developed as an institutional guiding concept to holistically address the vitality of cities under a long-term perspective and is based on the collaborative efforts of government, administration, business, science, and the civil society. Yet, the initiation and implementation of this guiding concept faces a variety of barriers, including deficient conceptualization, unfamiliarity, detrimental organizational structures, and inertia. We examine the initiation of urban sustainability governance in the City of Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. On the basis of the reviews of administrative documents and interviews with staff across various administrative levels and units, we reflect on achievements and shortcomings against guidelines of urban sustainability governance spelled out in the literature. Our study indicates accomplishments in the conceptualization of a vision and overall framework to operate from, but also a number of deficits in specifying sustainability targets, applying governance principles, and evaluating impacts. Additionally, we discuss how administrative structures influence how urban sustainability governance is being implemented. We draw conclusions regarding general factors for succeeding in the initiation and implementation of urban sustainability governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Riley Smith & Arnim Wiek, 2012. "Achievements and Opportunities in Initiating Governance for Urban Sustainability," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 30(3), pages 429-447, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:30:y:2012:i:3:p:429-447
    DOI: 10.1068/c10158
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c10158
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/c10158?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rene Kemp & Saeed Parto & Robert B. Gibson, 2005. "Governance for sustainable development: moving from theory to practice," International Journal of Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 8(1/2), pages 12-30.
    2. Harriet Bulkeley, 2006. "Urban Sustainability: Learning from Best Practice?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(6), pages 1029-1044, June.
    3. Maria Manta Conroy & Philip R Berke, 2004. "What Makes a Good Sustainable Development Plan? An Analysis of Factors That Influence Principles of Sustainable Development," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(8), pages 1381-1396, August.
    4. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    5. Wiek, Arnim & Walter, Alexander I., 2009. "A transdisciplinary approach for formalized integrated planning and decision-making in complex systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(1), pages 360-370, August.
    6. Graymore, Michelle L.M. & Sipe, Neil G. & Rickson, Roy E., 2008. "Regional sustainability: How useful are current tools of sustainability assessment at the regional scale?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 362-372, October.
    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. Kevin Summers & Melissa McCullough & Elizabeth Smith & Maureen Gwinn & Fran Kremer & Mya Sjogren & Andrew Geller & Michael Slimak, 2014. "The Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program: The Environmental Protection Agency’s Research Approach to Assisting Community Decision-Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-13, January.
    2. Iva Glibo & Laura Misener & Joerg Koenigstorfer, 2022. "Strategic Sustainable Development in International Sport Organisations: A Delphi Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-18, August.
    3. GĂNESCU, Cristina, 2014. "Responsible Corporate Behaviour Towards Consumers And Business Innovation – Prerequisites Of Sustainable Development. A Study On Eu Countries," Journal of Financial and Monetary Economics, Centre of Financial and Monetary Research "Victor Slavescu", vol. 1(1), pages 272-281.
    4. Suzanne Vallance & Harvey C. Perkins & Jacky Bowring & Jennifer E. Dixon, 2012. "Almost Invisible: Glimpsing the City and its Residents in the Urban Sustainability Discourse," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(8), pages 1695-1710, June.
    5. Yusra Mouzughi & David Bryde & Maher Al-Shaer, 2014. "The Role of Real Estate in Sustainable Development in Developing Countries: The Case of the Kingdom of Bahrain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-20, April.
    6. Tan Yigitcanlar & Md. Kamruzzaman, 2015. "Planning, Development and Management of Sustainable Cities: A Commentary from the Guest Editors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(11), pages 1-12, November.
    7. Ferng, Jiun-Jiun, 2014. "Nested open systems: An important concept for applying ecological footprint analysis to sustainable development assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 105-111.
    8. Fang He & Wendong Wu & Taozhi Zhuang & Yuan Yi, 2019. "Exploring the Diverse Expectations of Stakeholders in Industrial Land Redevelopment Projects in China: The Case of Shanghai," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-27, August.
    9. James Meadowcroft, 2009. "What about the politics? Sustainable development, transition management, and long term energy transitions," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 323-340, November.
    10. Joel Bothello & Afshin Mehrpouya, 2019. "Between regulatory field structuring and organizational roles: Intermediation in the field of sustainable urban development," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(2), pages 177-196, June.
    11. Suparak Suriyankietkaew & Phallapa Petison, 2019. "A Retrospective and Foresight: Bibliometric Review of International Research on Strategic Management for Sustainability, 1991–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, December.
    12. Laurence Crot, 2013. "Planning for Sustainability in Non-democratic Polities: The Case of Masdar City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(13), pages 2809-2825, October.
    13. Sander Happaerts & Karoline Van den Brande & Hans Bruyninckx, 2011. "Subnational governments in transnational networks for sustainable development," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 321-339, November.
    14. Lähtinen, Katja & Myllyviita, Tanja & Leskinen, Pekka & Pitkänen, Sari K., 2014. "A systematic literature review on indicators to assess local sustainability of forest energy production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1202-1216.
    15. Martín Alejandro Iribarnegaray & Lucas Seghezzo, 2012. "Governance, Sustainability and Decision Making in Water and Sanitation Management Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(11), pages 1-24, November.
    16. Cristina Boţa-Avram & Adrian Groşanu & Paula-Ramona Răchişan & Marius Dan Gavriletea, 2018. "The Bidirectional Causality between Country-Level Governance, Economic Growth and Sustainable Development: A Cross-Country Data Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-24, February.
    17. Yuanli Li & Pengcheng Xiang & Kairui You & Jin Guo & Zhaowen Liu & Hong Ren, 2021. "Identifying the Key Risk Factors of Mega Infrastructure Projects from an Extended Sustainable Development Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-29, July.
    18. Bakari Mohamed El-Kamel, 2013. "Globalization and Sustainable Development: False Twins?," New Global Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 7(3), pages 23-56, November.
    19. Hokyung Chung & Jongoh Lee, 2019. "Community Cultural Resources as Sustainable Development Enablers: A Case Study on Bukjeong Village in Korea compared with Naoshima Island in Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-14, March.
    20. von der Heidt, Tania, 2018. "A scholarship approach to embedding creativity and sustainability in Marketing Principles curriculum," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 99-115.

    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:sae:envirc:v:30:y:2012:i:3:p:429-447. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.