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Sustainable Urban Development Indicators for the United States: Report to the Office of International and Philanthropic Innovation, Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
(2011)
Abstract
In August 2010, the Sustainable Urban Development Working Group engaged researchers from
the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Urban Research to provide research in support of a
standard system of sustainable urban development indicators for the United States. Selected
indicators were to demonstrate the progress that American cities are making toward sustainable
urban development, inform supportive policy, planning and investment, and cover two
conceptual frameworks including the Partnership for Sustainable Communities’ Livability
Principles. As the first step in that research, the objective of this study was to explore the
characteristics of existing indicator systems, examine whether a standard set of sustainable
urban development indicators could be drawn or adapted from existing systems, and identify
challenges and recommendations in moving forward. Researchers reviewed of 22 systems with
377 indicators and identified a database of 145 candidate indicators. Following this analysis,
the research team concluded that coverage of social wellbeing and economic indicators is
insufficient, and the number of indicator systems in the review must be expanded. Additionally,
separation of the dimensions of sustainable urban development (i.e. environmental quality,
economic opportunity, and social wellbeing) hinders the ability of most systems to accurately
understand broad movements toward sustainability. As the project moves forward, efforts
should be made to include mainly indicators that emphasize and incentivize coordination
between these dimensions.
Keywords
- Sustainable Urban Development Working Group,
- Partnership for Sustainable Communities' Livability Principles
Disciplines
Publication Date
2011
Comments
Penn Institute for Urban Research White Paper Series on Sustainable Urban Development
Citation Information
Amy J. Lynch, Stuart Andreason, Theodore S. Eisenman, John Robinson, et al.. "Sustainable Urban Development Indicators for the United States: Report to the Office of International and Philanthropic Innovation, Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development" (2011) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/theodore-eisenman2/8/