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International Sustainability Indices
Þirin Gülcen Eren1, Seema Mehra Parihar21Department of City and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Süleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey.2Department of Geography, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India.
‘Sustainability’ and ‘Sustainable Development’ have been on the urban planning agenda since the Brundtland Report (1987). In order to make cities and regions sustainable, there is a need to assess their current situations and their progress with respect to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Various indices have been designed which use sustainability indicators to measure and monitor the current situation and the performance of strategies and action plans. This will make it possible to structure future actions and interventions and adjust existing ones. The contents of these indices vary due to the country, the development strategies adopted by different cities and regions, the aims and objectives of policyand decision-makers, their evaluation criteria, indicators and the ingenuity of the drafters of the indices. Few evaluations, however, have been made of these indices. Consequently, the question arises as to which index constitutes the best basis for the sustainability efforts of urban developers and planners. The present article explores the range of international sustainability indices and the contributions they may make to sustainable urban development. A descriptive analysis method is adopted and supported by a survey of the literature and an internet search. The objective is to create awareness about the indices and to contribute to the effective implementation of decisions and strategies for achieving the SDGs. The study argues that although such indices need to be standardised and reliable, the data collected may in practice be non-standard, the indicators may be invalid for all cities or geographies, and the indices may prove to be short-lived.
Keywords: Sustainability, Indices, Sustainability indices, Urbanization, City planningManuscript Language: English