Urban Sustainability Indicators

Procedural and normative aspects of sustainability indicators for cities.

A plethora of sustainability assessment (SA) initiatives have been developed worldwide in academic, governmental and non-governmental spheres over the last decade, notably in the form of sustainability indicators. So far, scholars have mainly addressed the technical issues associated with the measurement of sustainability in order to provide “hard facts” for decision-making, and relatively little attention was paid to the “soft” part of SA, namely the normative aspects intrinsically linked with the definition of SA tools and indicators and the procedural aspects, in particular the involvement of stakeholders in the SA process.

The normative dimension of SA involves clarifying the underlying sustainability concept from which goals are derived. Indeed, there is no single understanding of “sustainability” or “sustainable development”. The sustainability concept that is ultimately “conveyed” by the SA tool – and especially SDIs – depends on the worldviews of the involved stakeholders. The normative dimension is thus intrinsically linked to the procedural dimension, which comprises participatory aspects that have the potential to integrate the diversity of perspectives of the involved stakeholders.

By increasing the consideration of sustainability issues in decision-making, SA can be considered as an element of transition towards sustainability. SA also shares epistemological roots with the field of sustainability transitions, both referring to “post-normal science”, which addresses the issue of stakeholder participation and accounts for the multiplicity of views and value-laden perspectives in complex systems. However, SA and “sustainability transition” scholarships are evolving mostly separately and further work is needed to conceptually integrate them.

This project addresses the role that SA, and in particular SDIs, can play as an element of a transition towards sustainability. It does so by shedding light on its normative dimension (operationalisation of the concept of sustainable development) and on its procedural dimension (structure of the procedure and stakeholder involvement).

The research questions addressed in this project are the following:

• How is urban sustainability translated into indicators?
• What role and influence do SDIs have in cities?
• What are the drivers and barriers for developing and using SDIs in cities?

This project aims to provide empirical insights into the normative nature of sustainability indicators and into the aspects of sustainability which are highlighted or neglected in sustainability metrics. It also aspires at shedding light on the role of sustainability indicators in the urban sustainability governance and on their potential implication in the transition towards sustainability.

I am contributing to this research with my doctoral project –Analysis of the normative and procedural dimensions of sustainability assessment as an element of transition towards sustainability–.