Question

Transportation and Urban Planning Indicator Development in the USA. prepare a paper with a minimum of 2000 words discussing the selected case. please provide references.

Answer 1

Urban population has been increasing and it is estimated to reach 70% of the total population in the
world by 2050. Governments are facing greater challenges every time in providing inhabitants with
a good quality of life in their cities. Many cities around the world have developed sustainable urban
development plans for leading their urbanization process towards a desired status of urban sustainability.
Urban sustainability indicators have been selected as main elements for communicating the
status of the practice, which help to determine how successful strategies and policies enforced have been
in the attainment of sustainability goals. Different practices use different indicators according to their
particular needs, and these have been selected under different methods. However, whilst there are cases
where urban sustainability indicators are effectively in use, the experiences gained from each practice
have not been shared and used for the development of new urban development plans and for improving
the decision-making process in the selection of indicators. This paper examines 9 different practices and
proposes a comparative basis, namely, International Urban Sustainability Indicators List (IUSIL), for
allowing the better understanding of drivers and goals of each practice and identifying under what
circumstances various practices selected their indicators. Discussions made on the comparative analysis
are categorized in four different dimensions: environmental, economic, social and governance. Research
results show how comparative basis can lead to knowledge sharing between different practices, which
can be used to guide the selection of indicators of sustainable urbanization plans and improve the
effective communication of the status of practices. The study not only reveals how different indicators
are selected but also suggests the need for consistent processes of choosing indicators based on the
benchmarks obtained from best practices.

Introduction-
Urbanization is defined by the United Nations as movement of people from rural to urban areas (2004). It is envisaged that the
world, particularly in developing countries such as China and India, will witness an increase in urbanization in the immediate future with these two countries accounting together for about one-third of the increase in the urban population in the coming decades (United Nations, 2008). Developing countries have been implementing urbanization as a national strategy to drive economic development, in particular, to pursue balanced development between urban and rural areas. However, people continue moving into cities to seek a better life and economic opportunities.

Research objectives and methodologies-
The aim of this study is to critically examine and compare different sustainable urbanization practices in the process of
selecting urban sustainability indicators. This comparative analysis can allow the knowledge sharing and use for future practices. In line with the study aim, several objectives are planned in this research work: (1) to understand the drivers for developing different list of urban sustainability indicators, (2) to compose a primary list of urban sustainability indicators for comparative basis, (3) to identify the indicators list adopted in individual practices in implementing sustainable urbanization plans, and (4) to examine the variations of the different practices with the primary
list proposed in objective 2. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to obtain the information needed for pursuing the objectives of this research. Information was obtained from books, academic journals, government and institutional reports, sustainable urban development plans and websites. A comprehensive list of urban sustainability indicators is composed by using various sets of indicators promoted by international and regional organizations, such as the United Nations (2007), the UN Habitat (2004), the World Bank (2008), the European Foundation (1998), the European Commission on Science, Research and Development (2000), the EuropeanCommission on Energy Environment and Sustainable Development (2004). These have been used as references for many countries and communities to develop their own sustainable urbanization indicators systems. These 6 different sets of indicators are integrated in a single list named “International Urban Sustainability Indicators List (IUSIL)”. The purpose is to have a comprehensive list as a comparative base. IUSIL includes a wide variety of indicators that determine the urban sustainability performance of a city and are used to examine the variations between individual practices. IUSIL contains 115 indicators, formed into 37 categories in
order to better structure the indicators within 4 sustainable development dimensions: environmental, economic, social and
governance (See Appendix). IUSIL is proposed as comparative basis for analysing how different practices comply with its indicators.

Why urban sustainability indicators?
Indicators have the role of measuring performance, and in the process of urban sustainability assessment there is a need of
measurable indicators. Several approaches to assess urban sustainability based on indicators have been developed. Ugwu and Haupt (2007) examined available techniques for evaluating different aspects of sustainability through the use of indicators. Zhang, Wen, Du, and Song (2008) used the methodological foundations of various assessment methods to propose a classification, which divided them into three different groups: system engineering, monetary evaluation and biophysical.

Discussions-
The above different practices tell us different stories of development of sustainable urbanization plans, the selection of urban
sustainability indicators and their application. These plans were developed in different time, under different circumstances, and for varied purposes but by large for achieving sustainable urbanization. The differences between practices also reveal the difficulties in applying a set of common urbanization indicators. In the following section, discussions are made regarding the differences between the selected practices in compliance with the dimensions included in IUSIL.

Significance of sustainable urbanization-
The rapid urbanization is often at the expense of the loss of valuable ecosystems and lands for satisfying the urban demands.
Moreover, if the current and future urban areas continue with the same resource consumption practices without regarding the future needs, serious environmental, social and economic problems are expected (Daily, 1997; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2003). Therefore, international organizations (e.g., UN Habitat, World Bank, OECD, and European Commission) have committed great efforts in promoting the mission of sustainable urbanization practice and currently the mission is widely addressed among different disciplines. Consequently, many concepts and definitions on sustainable urbanization have emerged. The following ones are between these typical:
In U.S.A., the President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) in its “1997 Report” defines sustainable communities as “communities that flourish because they build a mutually supportive, dynamic balance between social wellbeing, economic opportunity, and environmental quality” (President’s Council on Sustainable Development, 1997).
Sustainable city is “a city where achievements in economic, social and physical development are made to last” (Soegijoko
et al., 2001). Urban sustainability is used as a desirable state of urban conditions that persists overtime (Adinyira, Oteng-Seifah, & Adjei-Kumi, 2007). The concept is often characterized by issues such as the proper use of resources to guarantee
a generational equity, protection of the natural environment,minimal use of non-renewable resources, economic vitality and diversity, community self-reliance, individual wellbeing, and satisfaction of basic human needs (Choguill, 1996; Hardoy,
Mitlin, & Satterthwaite, 1992).

Comparisons in using urban sustainability-
indicators between practices Description of the practices For understanding the drivers for developing different list of urban sustainability indicators, it is necessary to firstly identify a number of different city sustainable development plans where
sustainability indicators are adopted for monitoring the performance of the implementation of the plans. This study focuses on
examining the sustainable development plans at city level as this is the level where the application of urban sustainability indicators can be best appreciated and compared. According to Campbell (1996) and Camagni (2002) a growing number of experts recognize that it is at the local scale, i.e. at the level of municipalities, cities or metropolitan regions, that the challenges are best expressed. This paper examines 9 practices selected from both developing and developed countries and regions in the world, including Melbourne, Hong Kong, Iskandar, Barcelona, Mexico City, Taipei, Singapore, Chandigarh and Pune. The generalities of each practice are presented in this section with the aim to show the purposes, goals, boundaries and milestones defined in their sustainable urban development plans. This can help to generate a big picture of each of these practices. In order to collect comparable valid data for comparison between practices, a template is used, which includes headings of “name”, “vision”, “action by”, “participants”, “term”, “date of launch”, “date ofupdate”, “monitoring”, “focus areas”, “remarks”, as show below.

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