Strategies for the Promotion of Sustainable Urban Development …
173
of the Operational Research (OR) area and was first employed in decision making
in complex situations, with many factors involved (Bell et al. 1988; Costa et al.
2000). Unlike traditional methods of OR optimization, which seek to define the best
alternative in an analysis, the multi-criteria assessment aims to understand all the
aspects involved in the decision making in complex situations (Clemen 1996).
To build a multicriteria evaluation model, the authors created a methodological
process in four stages: (i) identifying factors related to sustainable cities; (ii) grouping
of factors and building of evaluation three; (iii) creating indicators from indicated
factors; and (iv) a careful evaluation of indicators and indicator groups. Then, we
present with detail which step of this process in building the multicriteria evaluation
model.
The first stage of multicriteria analysis corresponds in a research on the main
factors related to “sustainable cities”, in scientific databases such as Science Direct,
Scopus, Web of Science and Emerald. The article has used scientific papers and
reports of international programs aiming to find recent publications in sustainable
cities. Based on such publications, the authors identified the main factors related to
sustainable cities, which will be the base to create the evaluation model. Some criteria
were also needed to establish factors to inclusion in the model, and only factors that
were cited in at least three articles were used.
The second stage was grouping identified factors in an evaluation tree. An evaluation tree is a structure of the multicriteria evaluation model, which was created
with factors identified in the first step. The result was the structure of the evaluation
tree. The third stage was to create indicators so that indicators were created from
factors identified. For each factor were found, in average, three indicators, which
seek to calculate the level of the identified factor. In the fourth and last stage, the
authors made a careful evaluation of indicators and groups of indicators, evaluated
by specialist through a formal consultation. Thirty specialists from the sustainability
area were consulted.
3 Sustainability in Cities
Cities are understood as communities under a given administrative delimitation, normally referred to as cities, municipalities or local governments (Bai et al. 2016). They
are usually associated with their inhabitants, but environmental and socioeconomical
factors are also part of their characterization in varying amounts depending on the
city (Juraschek et al. 2018), as infrastructure, facilities for society and education,
retail, living, health, open and commercial spaces, industries and factories (Bond
and Morrison-Saunders 2011).
In 2010, buildings were responsible for 32% of all energy consumed (Futcher
et al. 2017), in addition to 19% of greenhouse gas emissions. In municipal level,
transportation and construction answer for 80% of the energy use and a similar
proportion related greenhouse gas emission (Hui 2001). Uncontrolled urbanization
can bring several negative effects, as natural disasters, climate change, energetic
173
of the Operational Research (OR) area and was first employed in decision making
in complex situations, with many factors involved (Bell et al. 1988; Costa et al.
2000). Unlike traditional methods of OR optimization, which seek to define the best
alternative in an analysis, the multi-criteria assessment aims to understand all the
aspects involved in the decision making in complex situations (Clemen 1996).
To build a multicriteria evaluation model, the authors created a methodological
process in four stages: (i) identifying factors related to sustainable cities; (ii) grouping
of factors and building of evaluation three; (iii) creating indicators from indicated
factors; and (iv) a careful evaluation of indicators and indicator groups. Then, we
present with detail which step of this process in building the multicriteria evaluation
model.
The first stage of multicriteria analysis corresponds in a research on the main
factors related to “sustainable cities”, in scientific databases such as Science Direct,
Scopus, Web of Science and Emerald. The article has used scientific papers and
reports of international programs aiming to find recent publications in sustainable
cities. Based on such publications, the authors identified the main factors related to
sustainable cities, which will be the base to create the evaluation model. Some criteria
were also needed to establish factors to inclusion in the model, and only factors that
were cited in at least three articles were used.
The second stage was grouping identified factors in an evaluation tree. An evaluation tree is a structure of the multicriteria evaluation model, which was created
with factors identified in the first step. The result was the structure of the evaluation
tree. The third stage was to create indicators so that indicators were created from
factors identified. For each factor were found, in average, three indicators, which
seek to calculate the level of the identified factor. In the fourth and last stage, the
authors made a careful evaluation of indicators and groups of indicators, evaluated
by specialist through a formal consultation. Thirty specialists from the sustainability
area were consulted.
3 Sustainability in Cities
Cities are understood as communities under a given administrative delimitation, normally referred to as cities, municipalities or local governments (Bai et al. 2016). They
are usually associated with their inhabitants, but environmental and socioeconomical
factors are also part of their characterization in varying amounts depending on the
city (Juraschek et al. 2018), as infrastructure, facilities for society and education,
retail, living, health, open and commercial spaces, industries and factories (Bond
and Morrison-Saunders 2011).
In 2010, buildings were responsible for 32% of all energy consumed (Futcher
et al. 2017), in addition to 19% of greenhouse gas emissions. In municipal level,
transportation and construction answer for 80% of the energy use and a similar
proportion related greenhouse gas emission (Hui 2001). Uncontrolled urbanization
can bring several negative effects, as natural disasters, climate change, energetic