A Partially Non-Compensatory Method to Measure the Smart and Sustainable Level of Italian Municipalities

Abstract

A smart sustainable city (SSC) is a paradigm that encapsulates the latest lines of development in multiple fields of research. The attempt to converge towards a model of sustainable urban life, made difficult by increasing anthropic pressure and polluting activities conducted by man, is also reflected in the intentions of public institutions to take measures of environmental risk mitigation. The change towards more liveable cities must also include the adoption of more far-reaching measures in various sectors. The objective of our work was to provide an analysis in order to assess which of the Italian provincial municipalities were most closely related to the paradigm of SSCs. This aim was pursued through a comparison based on the results of a partially non-compensatory quantitative method, known as the Pena’s Distance method (DP2). The smartest and most sustainable cities, such as Siena, Milan and Padua, were not identified on the basis of common urban characteristics but rather derived from the combination of distinctive and functional elements in the pursuit of a strategic approach aimed at fully exploiting the resources of each area. Moreover, at a macro-geographical level, from the analysis emerged the presence of contiguous clusters, i.e., areas in which a major concentration of smart sustainable municipalities tended to form.

Challenges facing indicators to become a universal language for sustainable urban development

“…Except for these four most commonly used dimensions, a few studies applied other dimensions to define urban sustainability, such as equity (Tanguay et al, 2010), well-being (Choon et al, 2011), culture (Azami et al, 2015;Ciacci et al, 2021), sustainability policy (Kilkis, 2016), smart (Shmelev & Shmeleva, 2018), urbanization (Cui et al, 2019), institution (Hong et al, 2019), governance (Steiniger et al, 2020) This paper summarizes these indicators into the four most commonly used dimensions, i.e., the economic, social, resource, and environmental dimensions according to the maximum correlation principle.…”

“…In addition, there are differences in the expressions between absolute value and relative value. For example, to measure the pedestrian areas in cities, some used whole pedestrian areas (Ciacci et al, 2021;Gonzalez-Garcia et al, 2018), while some utilized the relative value of pedestrian zone to the total surface (Gonzalez-Garcia et al, 2019;Rama et al, 2020). Finally, there may be various expressions on the same indicator.…”

Urban Creative Sustainability: The Case of Lublin

“…Lublin is among the European cities that have announced a joint declaration "Join, Boost, Sustain". Its aim is to strengthen cooperation in the field of sustainable digital transformation and to develop a model method of technological transformation of European cities [29]. It is also one of the few Polish cities to be certified as a smart city [30].…”

Benthic Macroinvertebrates and Zooplankton Communities as Ecological Indicators in Urban Wetlands of Argentina

“…Simultaneously, the demands of sustainability and objectives set at national and international levels require that actions be taken to reconvert urban systems innovatively and more sustainably. It is well known that the natural environment of a city is a strategic component necessary to promote the success of sustainable and smart city initiatives [3].…”

“…(2) A degree of disturbance can also be estimated using indicator species of both communities together. (3) The simultaneous study of both communities can provide more information on the water quality effects than if considered separately.…”