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

Dizdaroğlu, Didem

doi:10.3390/su9061018

Cited by 95 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Local decision makers have begun to assess and benchmark their city performance first, and then urban transformation projects, for territorial marketing reasons mainly, so as to promote their good practices and their success in reaching sustainability goals [7,8]. In fact, benchmarks, metrics and ratings seek to communicate the outcomes of urban policies in an easy way, by summarizing and simplifying the complex and broad volume of data acquired by a likewise wide range of sources [9][10][11].…”

Section: State Of Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Optimization Model Fitting the Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tools

et al. 2018

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The phenomenon of rapid and unplanned urban growth, driven by the migration from rural to urban areas, has hindered healthy urbanization and undermined sustainable development. Sustainability assessment has become one of the popular terms in different fields, especially in architecture and urban planning, and world leading urban sustainability assessment tools have been proposed. Each tool is based on a set of weighted evaluation parameters, related to some main sustainability dimension (environment, economy, society . . . ), and requires to reach a sustainability threshold. In this paper, after a brief review of the state of the art, a linear optimization model is presented, which aimed to find the minimum set of parameters needed to guarantee the sustainability threshold for each tool, taking into account all the sustainability dimensions. The model has been positively experienced with 144 input parameters belonging to five assessment tools. The tests prove that this procedure is able to summarize and overcome the choices made by the certifying bodies. Indeed the proposed optimization model selected 26 parameters of the five tools. The majority of the selected parameters are related to the environmental emergency that in recent decades has characterized-and still affects-urban systems.

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Section: State Of Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Optimization Model Fitting the Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tools

et al. 2018

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“…Indicators aim to assign a value that describes the complexity between social, environmental and ecological health [9]. This approach plays a crucial role by generating data about questions related to the environment and its implications for planning, strategies and political decisions [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Environmental, Geographical and Social Data to Assess Sustainability in Hydrographic Basins: The ESI Approach

et al. 2020

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The elaboration of environmental sustainability indexes (ESI) aims to describe the complexity between social, environmental and ecological health. These indexes play a crucial role by helping stakeholders during the decision-making process and by identifying possible sites that require practical sustainable actions. In this study, we aim to elaborate an ESI for hydrographic basins. We use three factors to build the index: land use; vulnerability to soil degradation and topographic land attributes; and human development. The human development factor includes the dimensions of education, sanitation, longevity and income. These three factors are recommended by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and reflect the pressure–state–impact assessment model. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed ESI, we applied it in a hydrographic basin located in southern Brazil. The sustainability level variation in the basin was classified into five groups: very low (0%), low (17%), intermediate (72%), high (11%) and very high (0%). The predominance of the intermediate sustainability level was found to mainly owe to the extent of agricultural land and the high degree of susceptibility to soil erosion in areas with low environmental conservation. In areas with native vegetation, environmental sustainability was found to be higher than in areas with other land use types. The resulting ESI will help facilitate future studies in environmental, economic or social dimensions in any hydrographic basin.

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“…One of the ways to measure WEF nexus performance is through a set of sustainability indicators that are expressed through composite indices [22,23]. Sustainability indicators and indices usually convey information on the performance and current status of resources at any scale [24][25][26], and for quantifying the state or trend of resource utilisation [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Indicators and Indices for the Water-Energy-Food Nexus for Performance Assessment: WEF Nexus in Practice – South Africa Case Study

Nhamo¹,

Mabhaudhi²,

Mpandeli³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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The missing link between cross-sectoral resource utilisation and management, and full-scale adoption of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus has been lack of analytical tools to support policy and decision-making. This paper defined WEF nexus sustainability indicators and developed a methodology to calculate composite indices to facilitate WEF nexus performance, monitoring and evaluation. WEF nexus indicators were integrated through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM). Data were normalised to determine composite indices. The method established quantitative relationships among WEF nexus sectors to indicate resource utilisation and performance over time, using South Africa as a case study. A spider graph of normalised indices was used to illustrate WEF nexus indicator performance and inter-relationships, providing a synopsis of the level of interactions and inter-connectedness of WEF nexus sectors. The shape of the spider graph is determined by the level of the interdependencies and interactions among the WEF nexus sectors, whose management is viewed either as sustainable or unsustainable depending on the classification of the developed integrated index. The spider graph produced for South Africa shows an over emphasis on food self-sufficiency and water productivity at the expense of other sectors, which results from the sectoral approach in resource management. Although the calculated integrated index of 0.203 for South Africa is classified as lowly sustainable, the emphasis is on the quantitative relationships among the indicators and on how to improve them to achieve sustainability. The developed method provides evidence to decision makers, indicating priority areas for intervention. The analytical model is another niche area for the WEF nexus, as it is now capable to evaluate synergies and trade-offs in a holistic way to improve efficiency and productivity in resource use and management for sustainable development.

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

Cited by 95 publications

References 66 publications

An Optimization Model Fitting the Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tools

An Optimization Model Fitting the Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tools

Integrating Environmental, Geographical and Social Data to Assess Sustainability in Hydrographic Basins: The ESI Approach

Sustainability Indicators and Indices for the Water-Energy-Food Nexus for Performance Assessment: WEF Nexus in Practice – South Africa Case Study

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

Cited by 95 publications

References 66 publications

An Optimization Model Fitting the Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tools

An Optimization Model Fitting the Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tools

Integrating Environmental, Geographical and Social Data to Assess Sustainability in Hydrographic Basins: The ESI Approach

Sustainability Indicators and Indices for the Water-Energy-Food Nexus for&nbsp;Performance Assessment: WEF Nexus in Practice &ndash; South Africa Case Study

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Sustainability Indicators and Indices for the Water-Energy-Food Nexus for Performance Assessment: WEF Nexus in Practice – South Africa Case Study