With growing urbanisation the sustainability of cities has become increasingly important. Although cities have been using indicators for a long time it is only in the last decades that attempts have been made to collate indicators into sets that reflect the many different aspects required to assess the sustainability of a city. The aim of this paper is to review the evolution of indicators for monitoring sustainable urban development in order to understand how ‘new’ the indicators suggested by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are for cities and the challenges they may face in using them. The review reveals that previous indicator sets emphasised environmental sustainability, health and economic growth. It is also shown that indicator sets that pre-date the SDGs lacked dimensions such as gender equality and reduced inequalities. In all, the SDG indicators provide the possibility of a more balanced and integrated approach to urban sustainability monitoring. At the same time, further research is needed to understand how to adapt the SDGs, targets and indicators to specific urban contexts. Challenges of local application include their large number, their generic characteristics and the need to complement them with specific indicators that are more relevant at the city level.
With growing urbanisation the sustainability of cities has become increasingly important. Although cities have been using indicators for a long time it is only in the last decades that attempts have been made to collate indicators into indicator sets with the aim of reflecting the many different aspects that need to be covered to assess the sustainability of a city. The aim of this paper is to review how indicators for monitoring sustainable urban development have evolved over time and compare them to the indicators suggested by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The review reveals that previous indicator sets emphasised environmental sustainability, health and economic growth. It is also shown that indicator sets that pre-date the SDGs lacked dimensions such as gender equality and reduced inequalities. In all, the SDG indicators provide the possibility of a more balanced and integrated approach to urban sustainability monitoring. At the same time, a methodology is needed to facilitate the adaptation process of localising the SDGS, targets and indicators. Challenges of local application include their large number, their generic characteristics and the need to complement them with specific indicators that are more relevant at the city level.
Cities have an important role to play in implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to mobilize sustainability at the urban level. Yet, municipalities encounter challenges in localizing the SDGs into their governance structures, and there is a need to advance our understanding of cities strengths and weaknesses in such processes. In this article we provide knowledge and reflections gained in analyzing the process of localizing the SDGs into the spatial planning of Smörkajen, a former industrial harbor site in Malmö, Sweden. By applying the analytical framework of Institutional Capacity Building, the study explores the process of localizing the SDGs in terms of building relational and knowledge capacities and to provide mobilization capacity by the formation of a sustainability strategy. The results illustrate an inclusive approach supporting relational capacity and numerous measures to enhance knowledge capacity, bringing about the formation of a draft sustainability strategy, strongly supported by the municipal participants. But rather than formally adopting the full strategy in the spatial planning of the Smörkajen area, the results of the process were only to be considered to the extent the traditional documents and processes allowed. In all, the results illustrate a strong support for the use of localized SDGs among municipal administrative units to mobilize sustainability, but also the challenges in actually implementing these in the formal planning and development process.
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