Design and application of a Sustainable Urban Surface Rating System (SURSIST)

Abstract

Urban surfaces reflect the economic, environmental and social idiosyncrasy of cities, playing a crucial role in the sustainable development of modern civilizations. Thus, the planning and efficient management of the skin of urban areas provides an opportunity to facilitate the fulfilment of the needs of present and future generations. However, there is a lack of specific tools to evaluate the contribution of these surfaces to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is the current framework adopted by the United Nations to measure progress towards sustainability. Consequently, this paper describes the design and application of a Sustainable Urban Surface Rating System (SUR-SIST) aimed at producing a composite sustainability index to measure the contribution of the land cover of entire cities to meeting the SDGs. SURSIST was based on a series of indicators proposed in accordance to the targets forming the SDGs, which were processed by combining CORINE Land Cover (CLC) maps with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOP-SIS). The application of SURSIST to the Spanish cities of Santander and Valencia during the time period from 1990 to 2006 demonstrated the progressive decrease in sustainability experienced by their urban surfaces due to the increased presence of impermeable covers. The replacement of a moderate part of the built-up area present in both cities in 2006 by greenspace proved to be a solution for recovering the degree of sustainability lost from 1990.

Housing Indicators for Sustainable Cities in Middle-Income Countries through the Residential Urban Environment Recognized Using Single-Family Housing Rating Systems

“…The flexible framework of these methods makes them receptive to covering more sustainability aspects [29], connecting the neighborhood and community, and thus contextualizing them on a broader scale [30]. One of the virtues of rating systems is their ability to evaluate a wide variety of different indicators as a whole, even though these might have different units of measurement [31]. This makes them a unique method by which to obtain indicators that have been proven in the construction sector in different regions around the world, and which in turn, have the support of experts who have participated in the development of each of the systems.…”

“…In contrast to other studies that focus on the level of the indicators [33][34][35][36][37], this work has centered on the initial situation of RUEs during the SHRS criteria scoring process. The significance of focusing on the study and acquisition of indicators has been shown in several publications, in which it is argued that the success of any evaluation process depends mostly on the indicators used [31,[38][39][40][41].…”

Air quality modelling in Catalonia from a combination of solar radiation, surface reflectance and elevation

“…6c. According to these inferences, urban planning and management strategies concerning air quality should consider taking measures to replace part of the built-up skin of urban areas by lighter surfaces, preferably based on green infrastructure, in order to control atmospheric pollution and contribute to improving sustainability (Jato-Espino et al, 2017).…”

Design and analysis of grid-connected sustainable urban residential energy systems

“…As per the sustainable development goal (SDG) 7 of SDG 2015-2030, it is expected to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. This SDG 7 aims to accelerate the transition for an affordable, reliable, sustainable energy system to maintain and protect ecosystems (Jato-Espino et al , 2018; Qiao et al , 2019). This study based on sustainability attempts to identify the determinant factors for implementation, characterization, energy demand and proposed technical solution for the energy supply system (Iqbal and Iqbal, 2019; Nayan et al , 2013; Sawle et al , 2016).…”