220
G. M. Oliveira et al.
basis for selecting WeGIx variables. Official statistics data sources were used to construct a WeGIx specific database: INE—National Statistics Institute (www.ine.pt),
PORDATA—Contemporary Portuguese Database (www.pordata.pt) and APA—Portuguese Environmental Agency (www.apambiente.pt). Collected information also
came from the Natura 2000 network database provided by the European Commission Directorate-General for Environment (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/
natura2000/data/index_en.htm). There is a notorious shortage of updated official
data concerning the Portuguese archipelagos of Açores and Madeira, which limits
the selection of variables. Furthermore, some of SDGs could not be addressed at all,
due to the complete lack of corresponding data: these are the cases of SDGs 2 and
12. Evaluating SDG 14 was not possible at the local scale as previously referred.
Besides the global and complementary SDGIs, other variables considered relevant
to the Portuguese reality were included in the selection: “Area burnt by fires” is
included because fires have been a significant problem in Portugal, causing death
and destruction at levels that severely degrade life conditions. Additionally, fires
have great impact in desertification, thus making it harder to achieve SDGs 13 and
15 (European Environment Agency 2017).
The environmental dimension is present in almost every SDG as the environment has impact in diversified domains of life (Leal Filho et al. 2018). The SDG
11 aims that, by 2030, cities and generally, all human settlements should become
inclusive, secure, resilient and sustainable spaces. To pursue this goal, it is necessary
to reorganize societies in several dimensions including industrial and infrastructures
development and urban lifestyles related to daily consumptions and mobility. Excessive vertical urbanization, poor urban designs and the lack of green spaces, among
others, define the environmental quality of cities by conditioning space, light and natural atmospheric air flows (Fontes et al. 2016) which affects air quality and threatens
human health (Barreira et al. 2018). Moreover, intensive road traffic in cities is the
main pollutants’ source contributing to poor urban air quality. Housing barriers established due to deficient urban planning and road design often aggravate this situation.
In Europe, it is acknowledged that the number of premature deaths from respiratory
diseases, in urban populations, could be reduced if measures to limit emissions from
vehicles were implemented (Anenberg et al. 2017). This is the reason for including
“NO X emissions”, which main emission source is road traffic.
Urban sustainability and its related environmental dimension, has been at the
centre of discussion at a national (Cavaco et al. 2015; Direção-Geral do Território
2018) and international plan (Deakin and Reid 2014; Mori and Christodoulou 2012;
Science for Environment Policy—European Commission 2015; Yang et al. 2018).
The global problems threatening sustainable development adopt special importance
in urban spaces, because urban metabolism is deeply dependent on ecosystems and
resource utilization (Science for Environment Policy—European Commission 2015).
As more people are continuously moving to cities, they trend to grow in number and
in population density and, consequently, infrastructure problems and socio-economic
asymmetries tend to evolve in scale and in complexity. “Incinerators” and “Landfills”
are associated to the urban metabolism and its infrastructures: these waste disposal
and treatment facilities are vital, but tend to lie in cities suburbs, thus usually con-
G. M. Oliveira et al.
basis for selecting WeGIx variables. Official statistics data sources were used to construct a WeGIx specific database: INE—National Statistics Institute (www.ine.pt),
PORDATA—Contemporary Portuguese Database (www.pordata.pt) and APA—Portuguese Environmental Agency (www.apambiente.pt). Collected information also
came from the Natura 2000 network database provided by the European Commission Directorate-General for Environment (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/
natura2000/data/index_en.htm). There is a notorious shortage of updated official
data concerning the Portuguese archipelagos of Açores and Madeira, which limits
the selection of variables. Furthermore, some of SDGs could not be addressed at all,
due to the complete lack of corresponding data: these are the cases of SDGs 2 and
12. Evaluating SDG 14 was not possible at the local scale as previously referred.
Besides the global and complementary SDGIs, other variables considered relevant
to the Portuguese reality were included in the selection: “Area burnt by fires” is
included because fires have been a significant problem in Portugal, causing death
and destruction at levels that severely degrade life conditions. Additionally, fires
have great impact in desertification, thus making it harder to achieve SDGs 13 and
15 (European Environment Agency 2017).
The environmental dimension is present in almost every SDG as the environment has impact in diversified domains of life (Leal Filho et al. 2018). The SDG
11 aims that, by 2030, cities and generally, all human settlements should become
inclusive, secure, resilient and sustainable spaces. To pursue this goal, it is necessary
to reorganize societies in several dimensions including industrial and infrastructures
development and urban lifestyles related to daily consumptions and mobility. Excessive vertical urbanization, poor urban designs and the lack of green spaces, among
others, define the environmental quality of cities by conditioning space, light and natural atmospheric air flows (Fontes et al. 2016) which affects air quality and threatens
human health (Barreira et al. 2018). Moreover, intensive road traffic in cities is the
main pollutants’ source contributing to poor urban air quality. Housing barriers established due to deficient urban planning and road design often aggravate this situation.
In Europe, it is acknowledged that the number of premature deaths from respiratory
diseases, in urban populations, could be reduced if measures to limit emissions from
vehicles were implemented (Anenberg et al. 2017). This is the reason for including
“NO X emissions”, which main emission source is road traffic.
Urban sustainability and its related environmental dimension, has been at the
centre of discussion at a national (Cavaco et al. 2015; Direção-Geral do Território
2018) and international plan (Deakin and Reid 2014; Mori and Christodoulou 2012;
Science for Environment Policy—European Commission 2015; Yang et al. 2018).
The global problems threatening sustainable development adopt special importance
in urban spaces, because urban metabolism is deeply dependent on ecosystems and
resource utilization (Science for Environment Policy—European Commission 2015).
As more people are continuously moving to cities, they trend to grow in number and
in population density and, consequently, infrastructure problems and socio-economic
asymmetries tend to evolve in scale and in complexity. “Incinerators” and “Landfills”
are associated to the urban metabolism and its infrastructures: these waste disposal
and treatment facilities are vital, but tend to lie in cities suburbs, thus usually con-