A Systematic Study of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Interactions in the Main Spanish Cities

Abstract

In October 2018, the Spanish SDSN Network, REDS, launched the SDG Spanish Cities Index report summarizing the progress of 100 Spanish cities toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This study, developed in collaboration with the Technical University of Madrid, follows the methodology used by the Global SDG Index and Dashboards and the US Cities Index, which SDSN co-produces annually to assess SDG performance at both the national and international levels. This study, previously developed by the same researchers, identifies the most suitable indicators, metrics and urban data to measure the commitment and degree of compliance with SDG 17 for a selection of Spanish cities. It provides, through a set of 85 indicators, a unique vision of their sustainable development and allows monitoring the implementation of the SDGs at the local level in the Spanish context. In this paper, the analysis of their interactions using this dataset has been systematized. This is an innovative first step in defining the path toward urban sustainable development to make policies happen: dependencies among the goals in terms of potential interactions need to be evaluated in the Spanish context. Those results, improvements and applicability are presented and discussed in the following to identify action priorities and raise awareness of local governments and policymakers. It concludes that major efforts are required to increase sustainability and suggests an open framework that can be gradually improved as more data become available.