The urban sustainable development goal: Indicators, complexity and the politics of measuring cities

Klopp, Jacqueline M.; Petretta, Danielle

doi:10.1016/j.cities.2016.12.019

Cited by 370 publications

(255 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The goals and associated indicators are not ranked or weighted and some are even contradictory. This suggests that decision makers need to evaluate on a case-by-case basis what is deemed more important, as has been suggested by some research [84,92], especially in the context of implementing the SDGs at local level [28,43,46,48,49].…”

Section: Conclusion and Directions For Further Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the analysis, these indicator sets are assessed in relation to the SDG indicator set, which is built on the experiences and strategies of previous goals and indicators, in particular the Millennium Development Goals [27,43,[83][84][85], acknowledging and addressing shortcomings and challenges such as the need to explicitly include all dimensions of sustainability, the need to set globally relevant goals but also to include and address local government. In particular, the recognition of the role of urban areas and local governments in facilitating sustainable development has led to the inclusion of a specific urban goal dedicated to cities and communities [43], even though many of the other 16 goals touch upon urban issues [3,41,48] and although many cities already have their own sustainability goals. The following section reviews and discusses which aspects have been most commonly monitored since the development of indicator sets for urban sustainable development started.…”

Section: Data Used In This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several goals directly address the local level. Yet, a number of researchers point out the fact that cities and urban activities touch upon the majority of all 17 goals [3,41,43]. Recent research has highlighted a number of challenges when implementing the SDGs at local level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Availability of reliable data in cities [37,[42][43][44]47]. The number of suggested SDG indicators makes it difficult meet the required demand on data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is an increasing amount of research dealing with aspects regarding the use of the SDGs in cities [3,16,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. Guides on localising the SDGs are starting to be available [48,49].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Applying the SDGs to cities: business as usual or new dawn?

Zinkernagel¹,

Evans²,

Neij³

2018

Preprint

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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.

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Section: Conclusion and Directions For Further Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Data Used In This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Availability of reliable data in cities [37,[42][43][44]47]. The number of suggested SDG indicators makes it difficult meet the required demand on data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Applying the SDGs to cities: business as usual or new dawn?

Zinkernagel¹,

Evans²,

Neij³

2018

Preprint

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Urban sustainability and the subjective well‐being of migrants: The role of risks, place attachment, and aspirations

Szaboova

Campos

Adger

et al. 2021

Population Space and Place

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While material conditions of migrant populations on average tend to improve over time as they become established in new destinations, individual trajectories of material and subjective well-being often diverge. Here, we analyse how social and environmental factors in the urban environment shape the subjective well-being of migrant populations. We hypothesise these factors to include (a) perceived social and environmental risk, (b) attachment to place, and (c) migrant aspirations. We analyse data from a cross-sectional survey of 2641 individual migrants in seven cities across Ghana, India, and Bangladesh. The results show that the persistence of inferior material conditions, exposure to environmental hazards, and constrained access to services and employment affect migrants' subjective well-being. Hence, social and environmental risks constitute urban precarity for migrants whose social vulnerability persist in their destination. Meeting migration-related aspirations and developing an affinity to urban destinations have the potential to mitigate negative sentiments from perceived risks. These findings have implications for future urban planning and sustainability.

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Global urban sustainability assessment: A multidimensional approach

Shmelev

Shmeleva

2018

Sustainable Development

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A new strategic direction for greening our cities and making them smart to reduce the environmental impact of their performance, increase employment and economic viability, and to enhance the quality of life requires a thorough assessment of sustainability and smart urban performance. This paper considers a database of over 90 global cities including London, New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, Beijing, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo exploring linkages between different sustainability and smart city dimensions. To assess urban sustainability performance, this study applied a multi‐criteria approach using a panel of 20 indicators to a set of 57 global cities. The assessment comprised important aspects of energy transitions, focusing on the drivers of CO2 emissions in cities, including the share of coal in the energy mix, public transport and cycling patterns, waste recycling, the water‐energy nexus, as well as the role of smart and creative economy. The results show that San Francisco leads in economic and environmental priorities, and Stockholm leads in social and smart city priorities. Seoul consistently performs very successfully across the whole spectrum of indicators. We devote considerable attention to the strategies, policies and performance of the leading cities, namely, San Francisco, Stockholm and Seoul. This assessment could be a valuable tool for policy‐makers and investors, and could help identify linkages between different sustainability dimensions, as well as investment opportunities in cities with sustainability potential.

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The urban sustainable development goal: Indicators, complexity and the politics of measuring cities

Cited by 370 publications

References 22 publications

Applying the SDGs to cities: business as usual or new dawn?

Applying the SDGs to cities: business as usual or new dawn?

Urban sustainability and the subjective well‐being of migrants: The role of risks, place attachment, and aspirations

Global urban sustainability assessment: A multidimensional approach

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