Benchmarking urban performance against absolute measures of sustainability-A review

Cities are a key target in the global quest for sustainability and are increasingly acting independently to take the lead in sustainability initiatives. To truly achieve sustainability, cities need to ensure that their consumption is compatible with absolute sustainability and validate achievements from a perspective that includes transboundary impacts. The aim of this review is to assess how well these topics are incorporated into commonly used urban sustainability assessment methods, using the safe and just space (SJS) framework definition of a minimum acceptable threshold for both ecological stability and standard of living. The review identified 277 different sustainability indicator frameworks that have been applied to cities and undertook a detailed assessment of the most commonly cited of these. Consumption-based footprint studies were separately assessed to determine the extent to which they measure SJS indicators for cities. Both indicator frameworks and footprint studies had a focus on boundaries of increasing risk, including carbon, water, and land use; however few measured highly exceeded boundaries including nitrogen and phosphorus use, biodiversity, and possibly chemical pollution. Social impacts were well covered in indicator frameworks, except food intake, but largely absent from footprint studies. Cities are largely not measuring their impact on planetary tipping points or transboundary impacts, risking resolving some environmental issues while exacerbating others.

Automated summary

Cities are increasingly focusing on sustainability, but there are still many issues in urban sustainability assessment. Some indicator frameworks and footprint studies fail to fully consider cross-boundary impacts and certain environmental issues, while social impacts are relatively well covered but do not include food intake.