Strategies for the Promotion of Sustainable Urban Development …
181
6 Final Considerations
Modern cities are facing intense challenges in the last decades. With environmental,
social and economic pressures, public policies have been founding difficulties to
solve all challenges in the great urban centers. Problems such as transportation,
energy, residues, land use, access to education and health and several other questions
are priorities in public policies in the world’s largest cities. However, there is still a
long way to go for cities to be sustainable, seeking to satisfy aspects in a balanced
way in environmental, social and economic axes.
During the last decades, a varied list of indicators has been created for the measurement of sustainability in urban centers. However, selection of the most interesting
ones has always been an intriguing question. Indicators for assessing the environmental performance of cities may include greenhouse gas emissions, water and energy
consumption, water quality, energy efficiency, waste volume and recycling rate, transport style and driver rate among others. They can be both quantitative and qualitative,
and what differentiates the indicators is the area in which they are focused, they help
to monitor progress and allow a deeper monitoring of the data, the indicators help
in the sustainability goals and inform the policymakers, as well as the public on the
current state of the environment, and their weaknesses and strengths, in addition to
highlighting the priority area.
They also can play a scientific role in deepening understanding of cities, can shape
dialogues and debates, legitimize or delegitimize political actions, be multi-purpose,
and become part of an assessment and comparison of conditions and trends in space
and time, monitoring progress towards goals, informing planning and decisionmaking, raising awareness, encouraging policy and behavioral change, promoting
public participation and improving communication.
This paper allows to identify the main factors regarding sustainability in cities,
creating an evaluation model that allows prioritizing employment of resources in
the most important areas. Based in the developed model, it is possible to conclude
that cities must prioritize access to education, health, social justice and encouraging
production and sustainable consumption. The main of the paper is that this model
will be useful to guide public policy-makers in order to prioritize investment. Future
researches may advance the development of indicators, in a way to create levels of
measuring which will allow comparisons in different cities’ sustainability levels.
Cities need to constantly develop so that their actions will be integrated and aligned
with sustainability theories. Today, it is common for urban centers to have problems
in develop in their institutional practices the idea that a sustainable development is
needed and must be followed by all citizens within a community. It is important
too that municipal decision-makers are involved in creating projects, programs and
spreading a sustainable development. They also can implement several initiatives for
promoting a sustainable development.
The authors recommend for future studies that each category, indicator and subindicators should be analyzed individually. Other projects can also bring specific
plans of action for each indicator, adapting it to the studied reality. Implementing
181
6 Final Considerations
Modern cities are facing intense challenges in the last decades. With environmental,
social and economic pressures, public policies have been founding difficulties to
solve all challenges in the great urban centers. Problems such as transportation,
energy, residues, land use, access to education and health and several other questions
are priorities in public policies in the world’s largest cities. However, there is still a
long way to go for cities to be sustainable, seeking to satisfy aspects in a balanced
way in environmental, social and economic axes.
During the last decades, a varied list of indicators has been created for the measurement of sustainability in urban centers. However, selection of the most interesting
ones has always been an intriguing question. Indicators for assessing the environmental performance of cities may include greenhouse gas emissions, water and energy
consumption, water quality, energy efficiency, waste volume and recycling rate, transport style and driver rate among others. They can be both quantitative and qualitative,
and what differentiates the indicators is the area in which they are focused, they help
to monitor progress and allow a deeper monitoring of the data, the indicators help
in the sustainability goals and inform the policymakers, as well as the public on the
current state of the environment, and their weaknesses and strengths, in addition to
highlighting the priority area.
They also can play a scientific role in deepening understanding of cities, can shape
dialogues and debates, legitimize or delegitimize political actions, be multi-purpose,
and become part of an assessment and comparison of conditions and trends in space
and time, monitoring progress towards goals, informing planning and decisionmaking, raising awareness, encouraging policy and behavioral change, promoting
public participation and improving communication.
This paper allows to identify the main factors regarding sustainability in cities,
creating an evaluation model that allows prioritizing employment of resources in
the most important areas. Based in the developed model, it is possible to conclude
that cities must prioritize access to education, health, social justice and encouraging
production and sustainable consumption. The main of the paper is that this model
will be useful to guide public policy-makers in order to prioritize investment. Future
researches may advance the development of indicators, in a way to create levels of
measuring which will allow comparisons in different cities’ sustainability levels.
Cities need to constantly develop so that their actions will be integrated and aligned
with sustainability theories. Today, it is common for urban centers to have problems
in develop in their institutional practices the idea that a sustainable development is
needed and must be followed by all citizens within a community. It is important
too that municipal decision-makers are involved in creating projects, programs and
spreading a sustainable development. They also can implement several initiatives for
promoting a sustainable development.
The authors recommend for future studies that each category, indicator and subindicators should be analyzed individually. Other projects can also bring specific
plans of action for each indicator, adapting it to the studied reality. Implementing