Voluntary Local Review Framework to Monitor and Evaluate the Progress towards Achieving Sustainable Development Goals at a City Level: Buraidah City, KSA and SDG11 as A Case Study

Abstract

Around the world, cities are on the front lines of sustainable development. They are responsible for more than 70% of global carbon emissions. Many of these cities are experiencing dangerous levels of pollution, underemployment, and health disparities. Since 2015, 193 countries have endorsed the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), intended to help address a wide range of challenges affecting cities and ultimately secure the resources for their next generations. All states are expected to present the national progress towards the SDGs through a Voluntary National Review (VNR). Despite the importance of the cities within this framework, only a handful of them worldwide have actively begun to review and assess progress towards these SDGs on a city scale. This paper seeks to develop a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) framework to assess and evaluate the progress of cities towards contributing to the SDGs. This framework has been developed by localizing the international and national frameworks to measure the performance of cities as they advance towards achieving the SDGs. Such a framework can serve as a tool for benchmarking progress on different aspects of sustainable development and help urban planners and policymakers prioritize policies and actions to improve urban quality of life. This framework is applied to monitor and evaluate the progress of the city of Buraidah in Saudi Arabia, as it strives towards achieving the targets of SDG11 (“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”).

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Driving Forces of Sustainable Development of Urban Human Settlements in China for SDGs

“…also postulated that the sustainable development of human settlements can further improve the ecological well-being of residents [29]. With respect to research methods, Osman (2021) developed the Voluntary Local Review framework to evaluate and monitor the progress of urban human settlements in Saudi Arabia to achieve SDGs [30]. Gonçalves (2020) believed that the Casa Azul Label and SBTool Urban Dahiya can be suitable for assessing the sustainability potential of human settlements in small towns of developing countries [31].…”

Urbanization and Land Use Planning for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Case Study of Greece

“…Whether or not the practice is environmentally sustainable, it is likely to move on if the economic analysis shows that it is advantageous from the viewpoint of a land user [43]. Economic analysis should also take into account the destruction of land resources and the subsequent decline in productivity [44]. This research emphasizes the need for strong governance institutions for a global approach to land management.…”

“…A comprehensive analysis of economic, environmental, and social factors is required to identify various degrees of urbanization that are sustainable [37,41,42]. In order to categorize the research on indicators of sustainable urbanization, most studies show that indicators should include economic development, the standard of basic public services, environmental development, and urban-rural heterogeneity [26,43,44]. Kotsoni et al (2017) evaluated urbanization based on different perspectives on city size and nature of existing infrastructure, public welfare, and integration of urban and rural areas, as well as the existing economic structure [29].…”

Assessing the Future City Post COVID-19: Linking the SDGs, Health, Resilience, and Psychological Impact

“…SDG 11 identifies the need to "make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable" [18]. It suggests that increasing inclusion, safety, resilience, and sustainability will pave the way for the other SDGs that seek to end poverty, increase equality, boost economic growth, and ensure that residents are living healthy lives [56,57]. SDG 11 identifies resilience as the driving force behind sustainable development, with the urban system needing to maintain consistency throughout all acute shocks, serious stresses, and environmental challenges, to achieve sustainability in a healthy and resilient city.…”

“…The study identified 16 indicators that could be utilized to measure progress toward sustainable development in cities. They are derived from the literature on the SDGs in the context of cities [56,59,60,95,[101][102][103][104], as well as the literature on healthy and pandemic-resilient cities [59,78,102] and on sustainability [37,48,[105][106][107][108].…”