Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
All these indices attempt to measure how much QOL a person enjoys with
a continuous emphasis that it is multifaceted. After years of relying on the
human development index (HDI) as the main measure of progress, the shift
of UN agencies, especially UN-Habitat, to adopting QOL as a measure of
progress recognises that it should be a right and not a luxury.
3.3 Measuring Sustainable Development
It is essential to measure how cities are performing with respect to sustain-
able development. Thus, the need for combining indices or for an integrative
tool is crucial to bring together environmental and human issues. According
to Newman, this approach has a much more positive agenda because it
encourages a much more pro-urban process and has the potential to drive an
integrated policy agenda [7]. Sustainability assessment emerged mainly from
the need to resolve the tension between ecologists, who saw most develop-
ment as essentially negative, and those working for social justice (especially
in low- and middle-income countries), who saw development as crucial to
meeting human needs. Thus these assessments can help in shaping a devel-
opment approach that would allow present and future generations to benefit
economically, socially and environmentally.
According to Moos et al., there are four general approaches to assess the
sustainability of different types of development [8,9]. The first focuses on the
extent to which resources and ecological functions are protected from devel-
opment, thus comparing how well two designs conserve the most ecologically
valuable land. The theoretical foundation was led by environmental planning
theorists and practitioners such as McHarg [10] and Hough [11], and many of
these principles are also evident in what is commonly known as ecosystem
planning [12,13]. However, this approach is limited in its ability to deal with
the issue of sprawl and the implications of sprawl for transportation patterns
and resource consumption more generally.
A second approach depends on ecosystem indicators, relying species
diversity or forest health to measure how human activities impact the envi-
ronment. This approach focuses on assessing changes over time, although
resultant data also provide an opportunity to compare different develop-
ments or regions. Its shortcoming is the difficulty of translating the indicators
into prescriptive information for planners and developers.
The third type of assessment measures the performance of a certain proj-
ect against a set of established criteria. The U.S. Green Building Council's
LEED, the British Building Research Establishment Environmental Assess-
ment Method for buildings (BREEAM), and the Japanese CASBEE certifi-
cation process have all created sustainability criteria for buildings and
other larger scales.
