IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/vayq7.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Conceptual frameworks for urban sustainability indicators - an empirical analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Halla, Pekka
  • Merino-Saum, Albert

Abstract

Indicator-based assessment represents a popular means of operationalizing the concept of sustainability. A central yet often neglected aspect in the development of indicator sets concerns the elaboration of accompanying conceptual frameworks. Despite the pivotal role that such frameworks play, and the normative power they wield, little explicit guidance exists for their development. To address this issue, we analyze an extensive sample of conceptual frameworks drawn from 67 urban indicator initiatives. The results of the analysis elaborate an empirically-based typology of four principal and two emerging framework types, each based on a particular logic for creating conceptual categories for urban sustainability indicators. We also develop a comparison of the framework types in terms of their respective abilities to meet the different purposes that conceptual frameworks ideally serve in indicator set development. The results allow us to provide much-needed guidance for indicator set developers; first, by laying out the range of options available; second, by helping developers choose between types of frameworks in accordance with their particular aims. In addition, through analysis of how urban sustainability is de facto defined in indicator initiatives, we aim to make a conceptual contribution that advances our understanding of the meaning of this complex concept.

Suggested Citation

  • Halla, Pekka & Merino-Saum, Albert, 2021. "Conceptual frameworks for urban sustainability indicators - an empirical analysis," SocArXiv vayq7, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:vayq7
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/vayq7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/60bf31b83a6df105c7d4db57/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/vayq7?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. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    2. Global Platform for Sustainable Cities, 2018. "Urban Sustainability Framework," World Bank Publications - Reports 29364, The World Bank Group.
    3. Cong Xu & Shixin Wang & Yi Zhou & Litao Wang & Wenliang Liu, 2016. "A Comprehensive Quantitative Evaluation of New Sustainable Urbanization Level in 20 Chinese Urban Agglomerations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-19, January.
    4. Unknown, 2005. "Forward," 2005 Conference: Slovenia in the EU - Challenges for Agriculture, Food Science and Rural Affairs, November 10-11, 2005, Moravske Toplice, Slovenia 183804, Slovenian Association of Agricultural Economists (DAES).
    5. van Zeijl-Rozema, Annemarie & Ferraguto, Ludovico & Caratti, Pietro, 2011. "Comparing region-specific sustainability assessments through indicator systems: Feasible or not?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 475-486, January.
    6. Christopher Kennedy & John Cuddihy & Joshua Engel‐Yan, 2007. "The Changing Metabolism of Cities," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 11(2), pages 43-59, April.
    7. Jenny Pope & Alan A.M. Bond & Jean Huge & Angus Morrison-Saunders, 2017. "Reconceptualising sustainability assessment," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/242233, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Andre De Montmollin & Andrea Scheller, 2007. "MONET indicator system: the Swiss road to measuring sustainable development," International Journal of Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(1/2), pages 61-72.
    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. Pekka Halla & Albert Merino‐Saum, 2022. "Conceptual frameworks in indicator‐based assessments of urban sustainability—An analysis based on 67 initiatives," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 1056-1071, October.
    2. Salvador Boccaletti Ramos & José Paula Silva & Cláudia Alexandra Bolela & Mônica Andrade, 2018. "Prediction of Human Development from Environmental Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(2), pages 467-477, July.
    3. Lorenzo Chelleri & Harn Wei Kua & Juan Pablo Rodríguez Sánchez & Kh Md Nahiduzzaman & Gladman Thondhlana, 2016. "Are People Responsive to a More Sustainable, Decentralized, and User-Driven Management of Urban Metabolism?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-12, March.
    4. Lara P. Clark & Samuel Tabory & Kangkang Tong & Joseph L. Servadio & Kelsey Kappler & Corey Kewei Xu & Abiola S. Lawal & Peter Wiringa & Len Kne & Richard Feiock & Julian D. Marshall & Armistead Russe, 2022. "A data framework for assessing social inequality and equity in multi‐sector social, ecological, infrastructural urban systems: Focus on fine‐spatial scales," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(1), pages 145-163, February.
    5. Tomás B. Ramos, 2019. "Sustainability Assessment: Exploring the Frontiers and Paradigms of Indicator Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-14, February.
    6. Arbolino, Roberta & Boffardi, Raffaele & Lanuzza, Francesco & Ioppolo, Giuseppe, 2018. "Monitoring and evaluation of regional industrial sustainability: Evidence from Italian regions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 420-428.
    7. Clement, Jessica & Ruysschaert, Benoit & Crutzen, Nathalie, 2023. "Smart city strategies – A driver for the localization of the sustainable development goals?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    8. Gunnarsdottir, I. & Davidsdottir, B. & Worrell, E. & Sigurgeirsdottir, S., 2020. "Review of indicators for sustainable energy development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    9. Thomas Elliot & Javier Babí Almenar & Samuel Niza & Vânia Proença & Benedetto Rugani, 2019. "Pathways to Modelling Ecosystem Services within an Urban Metabolism Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-22, May.
    10. Edvins Karnitis & Janis Bicevskis & Girts Karnitis, 2021. "Measuring the Implementation of the Agenda 2030 Vision in Its Comprehensive Sense: Methodology and Tool," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    11. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    12. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    13. Pilar Lopez-Llompart & G. Mathias Kondolf, 2016. "Encroachments in floodways of the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 81(1), pages 513-542, March.
    14. Michelle Sheran Sylvester, 2007. "The Career and Family Choices of Women: A Dynamic Analysis of Labor Force Participation, Schooling, Marriage and Fertility Decisions," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 10(3), pages 367-399, July.
    15. DAVID M. BLAU & WILBERT van der KLAAUW, 2013. "What Determines Family Structure?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 579-604, January.
    16. Afanasyev, Dmitriy O. & Fedorova, Elena A. & Popov, Viktor U., 2015. "Fine structure of the price–demand relationship in the electricity market: Multi-scale correlation analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 215-226.
    17. Peter Viggo Jakobsen, 2009. "Small States, Big Influence: The Overlooked Nordic Influence on the Civilian ESDP," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 81-102, January.
    18. R. Ebrahimi & S. Choobchian & H. Farhadian & I. Goli & E. Farmandeh & H. Azadi, 2022. "Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    19. Billio, Monica & Casarin, Roberto & Osuntuyi, Anthony, 2016. "Efficient Gibbs sampling for Markov switching GARCH models," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 37-57.
    20. Jan Babecký & Fabrizio Coricelli & Roman Horváth, 2009. "Assessing Inflation Persistence: Micro Evidence on an Inflation Targeting Economy," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 59(2), pages 102-127, June.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:osf:socarx:vayq7. 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    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.