Integrated design and assessment of sustainable developments
In addition we also identify the sub-theme of integrated assessment of
sustainable developments as a key overarching theme that connects all of the
other sub-themes and provides the central focus for the activities of ISST.
The assessment of the degree of sustainability achieved by a given system or
technology for human settlements and developments needs to be considered on
a system-wide basis accounting for system and component performance in a
number of dimensions.
The widely-accepted concept of the "triple bottom
line"- environmental, economic and socio-cultural factors C is an obvious
manifestation of this basic requirement. Whilst this approach provides some
direction for assessment and evaluation of the sustainability state of a
given system, it does not provide specific guidance about what should be
considered in an evaluation, or how the evaluation should be undertaken. The Minken-Heal-Chichilinsky definition of sustainability has provided useful
guidance for the valuation of policies and initiatives in sustainable urban
transport. This definition is based on two defining characteristics of
sustainability as a system-wide objective:
- sustainability requires consideration of both the welfare of present day society and the society of the very distant future, and
- sustainability implies conservation of natural resources. Thus natural resources should be valued not only as something that may be consumed (in production or consumption) but also as stocks that benefit us even when not being consumed.
We depend on some basic qualities of our surrounding ecosystems for our quality of life and indeed for our continued existence. On this basis, a sustainable human settlement system is one which:
- provides reasonable access to resources, facilities and services in an efficient way for all inhabitants of an urban area
- protects the environment, cultural heritage and ecosystems for the present generation
- does not endanger the opportunities for future generations to reach at least the same welfare level as that of the present generation, including the welfare derived from the natural environment and cultural heritage.
This definition can provide the basis for a general framework for evaluation of the level of sustainability of human settlement systems. For example, on the basis of a recent international collaborative research project on sustainable transport, we can identify eight objectives of interest in the evaluation of system performance:
- economic efficiency
- protection of the social environment
- protection of the physical environment
- equity, social inclusion and accessibility
- safety and security
- economic growth
- finance
- practicability
These objectives may provide the core set for a multi-criteria evaluation method to be applied to the assessment of sustainability levels and the intent of the integrated assessment research sub-theme is to develop and test such an evaluation method.