Measuring and monitoring liveability in a low-to-middle income country: a proof-of-concept for Bangkok, Thailand and lessons from an international partnership

Abstract

Globally there is increasing interest in making cities more liveable for all, a concept which aligns strongly with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. However, existing tools for tracking progress towards more liveable, equitable cities have been developed primarily for cities in high-income country contexts, while there is little guidance for cities in low-or middle-income country contexts. This partnership project is a capacity-building collaboration between RMIT University (Australia), the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (Thailand), the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (Australia), the UN Global Compact -Cities Programme, and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (Australia). The project's aim is to develop a city-wide liveability indicators system for Bangkok for informing urban planning policy. Thus far, over 60 liveability indicators have been generated for Bangkok. Moreover, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has identified three Bangkok districts for deeper interrogation. This project is developing scalable tools for monitoring liveability and strategically informing urban planning policy in a low-to-middle income city context, with relevance to other cities. It has established an international liveability network and deeper understanding of shared challenges and created ongoing opportunities for capacity building and reciprocal learning.

Creating healthy and sustainable cities: what gets measured, gets done

“…The goal of Series 2 is to facilitate the development of a global system of policy and spatial indicators for healthy and sustainable cities. Building on methodologies developed in Australia, 7,8 we measured a modified list of the indicators recommended in Series 1 for 25 cities in 19 middle-income and high-income countries. We sought to answer multiple questions: (1) Is it feasible to measure policies in cities worldwide?…”

Building Capacity in Monitoring Urban Liveability in Bangkok: Critical Success Factors and Reflections from a Multi-Sectoral, International Partnership

“…The structure of the partnership, its outputs and processes, are described in detail elsewhere [ 14 , 15 , 28 , 32 ]. Briefly, this partnership sought to develop a suite of spatially-derived bilingual liveability indicators, aligned to various SDGs and social determinants of health, that could be used for measuring and monitoring liveability in Bangkok.…”

“…The aim of this paper is to reflect on experiences from an international partnership designed to build organisational capacity in using and interpreting liveability indicators, aligned with the SDGs and social determinants of health, in Bangkok, Thailand [ 28 ]. Here, we discuss factors that were critical to its success and reflect on lessons that could be applied to future partnerships.…”

Asian city prospects for planning and urban health

“…Our special issue has also gathered lessons learned from emerging digital technologies in urban planning. To help planning professionals and decision-makers envision a more sustainable urban living environment, Alderton et al (2020) provided practical examples of using innovative evaluation methods for accessing the quality of urban infrastructure and thereby liveability, informed by communitylevel data This team measured and monitored liveability in Bangkok, Thailand, and drew lessons for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.…”