Measurement indicators and an evaluation approach for assessing urban sustainable development: A case study for China's Jining City (original) (raw)

Measuring and evaluating urban sustainability

Valori e Valutazioni

The concept of sustainable development is closely related to that of sustainability assessment, as it implies a process of evaluation of progress made over time. In this context, indicators present themselves as a key and fundamental element for measuring and evaluating the specific issues that compose the different phenomena to be monitored. Indeed, they constitute the tool that can provide qualitative or quantitative data and information needed to identify the performance, progress, and weaknesses of plans, projects, and policies. In this context, the paper investigates the potential differences that the indicator can take in the differing purposes of measurement and evaluation in the context of urban sustainable development. A literature review is therefore conducted to gather and systematize knowledge so that it can be useful for reflections on sustainable urban assessment. The paper reports the results of the analysis concerning the context of measurement and evaluation, highli...

Urban Sustainability Performance as the Framework in Evaluating Sustainable City

According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2009 sustainable development is not possible without sustainable urbanization. Sustainable development has been defined as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Decision making for sustainable development, particularly in the field of planning or design, requires a framework within which to structure the problem. The proposed framework aims at guiding designers and planners, official public developers and decision makers through the process of understanding and evaluating sustainable development in planning and design on the basis of a new holistic structure that acts as a prompt and a checklist (Lombardi, P, Brandon, S, P, 2005). Sustainable urbanization is a significant component and the key to sustainable growth and it’s strategies should be "green" with a strong emphasis on energy efficiency, public transport, and sound ...

Review and analysis of tools for the implementation and assessment of sustainable urban development

future, 2006

The principles of sustainability and ecologically sustainable development (ESD) are widely accepted as important components of urban planning and development, and indeed the language of sustainability is heavily featured in recent urban planning strategy and policy. There are currently numerous initiatives to incorporate ESD principles in urban buildings. Building assessment tools such as AccuRate and BASIX exist, along with the Green Building Council's 'Green Star' suite of tools and others (e.g. NABERS, BREEAM, LEED), as do various reviews of these approaches. There is much less activity, however, on the incorporation of ESD principles into the planning and design of the broader urban form. This paper focuses on assessment tools aimed at the suburb or precinct scale, presenting a representative review of existing initiatives. It will highlight strengths and weaknesses of the approaches reviewed, and propose future directions for the provision of assessment tools to improve the ecological sustainability performance of urban development.

The application of urban sustainability indicators – A comparison between various practices

Habitat International, 2011

Urban population has been increasing and it is estimated to reach 70% of the total population in the world by 2050. Governments are facing greater challenges every time in providing inhabitants with a good quality of life in their cities. Many cities around the world have developed sustainable urban development plans for leading their urbanization process towards a desired status of urban sustainability. Urban sustainability indicators have been selected as main elements for communicating the status of the practice, which help to determine how successful strategies and policies enforced have been in the attainment of sustainability goals. Different practices use different indicators according to their particular needs, and these have been selected under different methods. However, whilst there are cases where urban sustainability indicators are effectively in use, the experiences gained from each practice have not been shared and used for the development of new urban development plans and for improving the decision-making process in the selection of indicators. This paper examines 9 different practices and proposes a comparative basis, namely, International Urban Sustainability Indicators List (IUSIL), for allowing the better understanding of drivers and goals of each practice and identifying under what circumstances various practices selected their indicators. Discussions made on the comparative analysis are categorized in four different dimensions: environmental, economic, social and governance. Research results show how comparative basis can lead to knowledge sharing between different practices, which can be used to guide the selection of indicators of sustainable urbanization plans and improve the effective communication of the status of practices. The study not only reveals how different indicators are selected but also suggests the need for consistent processes of choosing indicators based on the benchmarks obtained from best practices.

An interactive method to select a set of sustainable urban development indicators

Ecological Indicators, 2016

The paper proposes a method for selecting a set of sustainable development indicators which can be used for various sustainability-related tasks, such as assessment of current condition, measure of progress toward specific goals of sustainable development, in general, and sustainable urban development, in particular. The method is based on variable clustering, selecting cluster representative, and multivariate linear regression in combination with experts and stakeholders' input in an interactive process. The small set of indicators derived from the proposed method was able to account for a significant amount of information from the initial indicator set while effectively assisting stakeholders in making informed decision based on objective quantitative information and meeting their preference simultaneously.

Measuring Urban Sustainability: Developing a Conceptual Framework for Bridging the Gap Between theoretical Levels and the Operational Levels

The issue of sustainable development has been widely acknowledged and spread rapidly after United Nations conference on environment and development in Rio in 1992. Considerable attention is given to urban settlement areas. Thus, role of urban development is seen as a challenging issue under circumstances. Outcomes of the current patterns of world population growth and industrial development are agreed and reported as major causes of un-sustainability in long term. Whereas by turn of century almost half of the world's population is lived in urban areas; it is expected that this figure will reach to 8.1 billion -60.5% of world population- by year 2030. This is twofold; on the one hand cities are the places of the excessive use of energy and resources, of production of waste and pollution, of crimes and deprivations and socio-cultural un-stability, and so forth. However, some question will arise: is there a simple and universal model of sustainable urban form? How would decision ma...

Holistic methodological framework for the characterization of urban sustainability and strategic planning

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2019

In the past decades several attempts were made for the ad-hoc application of systems of indicators as decision-support tools towards sustainable urban development. The selected systems' results are often questioned, either for the suitability of the selected system per se, or for its ability to characterize effectively urban sustainability. In the attempt to satisfy the demanding needs of indicators' systems, the primar reason for which such tools were introduced is often neglected and we enter into an endless, time consuming process of arithmetic calculations, forgetting about the need to link results to strategies and applicable measures. Citizens' perception and social maturity to accept decisions, as well as the multiplying effect of decisions to the environment, applicability and funding availability, are criteria that need to be considered, before the uptake of decisions. The current study introduces an ''Indicator System for Characterization of Urban Sustainability'' (ICARUS). ICARUS is a system for the elaboration of sustainability profile of a city. It addresses the Euro-Mediterranean urban contexts that from an eco-systemic approach point of view interact in a unique way with sustainability pillars. It is designed for aiding the delivery of the sustainability agenda as well. The methodological framework leads to a prioritized list of sustainability measures that takes into consideration not only stand-alone data but also citizens' perception and assessment against other important criteria. The methodology is applied for the case of Municipality of Thessaloniki, in Greece. Proximity to basic services, green element and space for pedestrians are the most highly hierarchized measures.

Comparitive Analysis Of Different Urban Sustainability Practices

2014

CuttackUrbanization has assumed serious proportions with 67% of the world population expected to live in cities by 2050. Many international , national and city level initiatives have been launched to evaluate ,monitor and report the urban sustainable development. Sustainability Indicators are evidence based tools to indicate the effectiveness of policy making in urban planning .The different practices use different methods to select the indicators according to their own objectives and purpose. However the experience gained from each practice has not been comparatively studied to improve the decision making process in the selection of indicators. This paper examines four different frameworks namely the Habitat Agenda Indicators(UNCHS), Millennium Development Goals(UN-Habitat),City Data Book(Asian Development Bank) and Global City Indicators(World Bank) for identifying the driving forces behind the selection of indicators .Discussions on the comparative analysis has been made on the p...

Assessment of the Sustainable Urban Development Level Through the Use of Indicators of Sustainability

2011

In this paper the authors analized the evolution of four major cities of Romania between 2006-2008, with the goal to compare and rank them in terms sustainable development. To meet this goal, we have choosed indicators of sustainability at urban level, grouped in four categories (economic, social, environmental and natural resources). For each city was calculated an overall score. The comparation of these scores could be used to diferentiate the cities in terms of sustainability in each year and the evolution during a period of three years, and provides important informations about the measures that can be applied for future improvement.

Application of sustainability indicators in decision-making processes for urban regeneration projects

Proceedings of The Institution of Civil Engineers-engineering Sustainability, 2008

Birmingham Eastside, an area of 170 ha, is located to the eastern side of Birmingham's city centre in the UK. Over a 10-year period this once-deprived inner city area is being regenerated through public and private finance estimated at £6 billion. The regeneration scheme is bringing about changes to the local environment, economy and society.