Re-thinking sustainability indicators: local perspectives of urban sustainability

Abstract

The measurement of sustainability is not only a contentious issue, but one which has captured the attention of both academics and politicians since the late 1980s. A plethora of methods and approaches have been developed over the last decades or so, from rapid measurements as inputs to specific projects, to longer-term processes of research, monitoring and wider learning. But perhaps, the most influential ones have been indicators. The tensions between expert-led and citizen-led models of indicator development have fuelled much debate in the literature, in relation to their reliability or effectiveness. Among the solutions suggested, integrating the two approaches has been seen as salient to tapping into various levels of 'knowledge' of sustainability and thus, a better way of assessing sustainability. However, little is known of whether these 'integrated' sets of sustainability indicators work in practice or, indeed, reflect local perspectives, values and understandings of sustainability which they aim to represent. This paper aims to fill this gap. We first design such an 'integrative' set of indicators which we then discuss with over 60 'sustainability experts' and 130 residents living in three urban areas in the UK. We find that our set of indicators is generally a good reflection of urban sustainability in these areas, however, individual indicators held different degrees of 'importance' in people's day-to-day lives, something which is little accounted for when measuring urban sustainability. We also find that sustainability indicators are not isolated pieces of information, but manifestations of local underlying processes and interconnections that can be mapped and which have the potential to shed more light on our understanding of local sustainability.

The relevance of physical forces on land-use change and planning process

“…This study demonstrated the complex interactions that existed between environmental and socio-economic factors on land-use change, reinforcing the reasons identified by Verburg et al (2004), Claessens et al (2009), andLi, Zhou, andOuyang (2013), leading us to rethink sustainability of local urban settlements (Turcu 2014). For future sustainable development and prevention of hazardous events it is important to take the following into account (1) the design and implementation of a Master Plan must consider the physical parameters of the landscape, which are essential in producing thematic mapping and support land-use restrictions and constraints, (2) given the role of actors in the transformation processes, measures should be implemented that effectively involve different actors and levels of expertise in the planning process.…”

Avaliação De Desempenho Para O Desenvolvimento Do Urbanismo Sustentável: Revisão De Literatura E Diretrizes Para Futuras Investiações

“…Para o alcance do objetivo desta pesquisa, operacionalizaram-se as duas primeiras etapas do ProKnow-C, ou seja, (i) a formação de um portfólio de artigos relevantes e alinhados ao tema, e (ii) a análise bibliométrica das variáveis básicas (artigos, periódicos, autores e ferramentas de AD) e variáveis avançadas (nível do sistema/ferramenta de avaliação e ciclo de vida do sistema/ferramenta), que respondem pelo mapeamento da literatura e possibilitam a geração de conhecimento sobre o tema. (BERARDI, 2013;TURCU, 2013;KOMEILY;SRINIVASAN, 2015;AHVENNIEMI et al, 2016), qualidade de vida (ALQAHTANYA et al, 2012) e cultura (AMEEN et al, 2015).…”

The Role of Indicator-Based Sustainability Assessment in Policy and the Decision-Making Process: A Review and Outlook

“…With the development of these indicators, people will easily manage their own behaviour with reference to their individual goals and they will be motivated continue improvements through new policy intervention and incentives. Turcu [11] states that what seems obvious and important to experts at the 'top' of indicator development might seem less important to citizens at its 'bottom'. By including citizens' values and priorities to indicator development, the focus of indicators could shift from 'input' and 'process' to 'outcome' oriented understanding of local sustainability which provides policy-makers with relevant information to assess sustainability.…”