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Towards prosperous sustainable cities: A multiscalar urban sustainability assessment approach

  • Tan Yigitcanlar*
  • , Fatih Dur
  • , Didem Dizdaroglu
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • Logan City Council
  • Bilkent University

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

184 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Prosperity and environmental sustainability of cities are inextricably linked. Cities can only maintain their prosperity when environmental and social objectives are fully integrated with economic goals. Sustainability assessment helps policy-makers decide what actions they should and should not take to make our cities more sustainable. There are numerous models available for measuring and evaluating urban sustainability; they focus their analysis on a specific scale-i.e., micro, mezzo, or macro. In most cases, these results are inadequate for the other scales, though generating reliable results for that particular scale. The paper introduces a multiscalar urban sustainability approach by linking two sustainability assessment models evaluate sustainability performances in micro- and mezzo-levels and generate multiscalar results for the macro-level. The paper tests this approach in Gold Coast, Australia, and sheds light on the development of a more accurate sustainability analysis that may be interconnected with UN-Habitat's City Prosperity Index.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)36-46
Number of pages11
JournalHabitat International
Volume45
Issue numberP1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Funding

This paper is an outcome of an Australian Research Council Linkage Project ( ARC-LP0882637 ), jointly funded by the Commonwealth Government of Australia , Gold Coast City Council , Queensland Transport and Main Roads , and Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The authors wish to acknowledge the contribution of the project partners, research team and expert panel members. The authors also cordially thank the guest editor Prof Gary Sands for inviting us to contribute to the special issue and providing invaluable feedback that helped us improve the manuscript.

FundersFunder number
Gold Coast City Council
Queensland Transport and Main Roads
Australian Government
Australian Research CouncilARC-LP0882637
Queensland University of Technology

    UN SDGs

    This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

    1. SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
      SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
    2. SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
      SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production
    3. SDG 15 - Life on Land
      SDG 15 Life on Land
    4. SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals
      SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals

    Keywords

    • City prosperity
    • Multiscalar approach
    • Sustainability indicators
    • Sustainable urban development
    • Urban sustainability assessment

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