4
shows that as LA prepares for the 2028 Olympics,
the SDG framework can help set priorities for
ongoing work towards a comprehensive vision
for the city. In Houston, Dr. David Abraham
reveals the city’s history of engagement with sustainable development thought leaders and institutions, dating back from the 1970s to today.
However, as Dr. Abraham points out, in his comparison of SDG performance in Houston and the
top 100 most populous metros in the United
States, Houston stakeholders need to tackle the
fundamental issue of sprawl to significantly
improve the sustainability performance of the
region.
Although the introduction of the SDGs was
new in North American cities in 2015, the idea of
measuring and tracking sustainable development
was certainly not. Chapters 5 and 6 of the book
provide city-level examples of mapping and
adapting existing sustainable development
frameworks established in North America to the
SDG framework. Maria Spiliotopoulou and Dr.
Mark Roseland discuss the urgency for local
action for achieving the global goals so that utilizing an adopted framework better mobilizes
action toward implementing and monitoring the
SDGs locally. They provide research findings for
a complex matching and mapping exercise to
show the relationship between the SDGs, the
Community Capital Framework, and local goals
for municipalities in British Columbia. The team
of authors from California-based Applied Survey
Research describes how and why it was possible
to connect their long-standing work evaluating
the Community Assessment Project in Santa
Cruz County to the global goals. They explain
that three conditions are necessary for any framework to successfully apply the SDGs locally: (1)
a prior commitment to well-being for all which
aligns with the priorities of the SDGs for leaving
no one behind, (2) experience with creating a
measurement system that tracks well-being, and
(3) the ability to coordinate action across multisector stakeholders.
Chapters 7 and 8 of the book are about the
dual challenge of both national mobilization and
local engagement of SDGs. Indices and online
Community Indicator System (CIS) portals are
recommended, respectively, as national- and
local-level tools to manage and track local-level
performance differences on SDGs. Jessica Espey
of the Sustainable Development Solutions
Network (SDSN) writes about the group’s opportunities and challenges in preparing a national US
Index for the SDGs. She presents the need to also
complement such an effort with local-level action
on SDGs, since city-level mayors are politically
and thematically key stakeholders in developing
sustainability policy. Jennifer Temmer and Stefan
Jungcurt of the International Institute for
Sustainable Development (IISD) focus on the thematic benefits of community and city-level adaptation of the SGDs, before they present the
benefits of a novel CIS portal their group developed for use by cities interested in reporting on
the SDGs. Their research points to five predominant thematic indicator measurement movements
that can be addressed by implementing the SDGs.
These are Quality of Life, Healthy Communities,
Sustainability, Government Performance and
Benchmarking, and “Subjective Well-Being,”
which incorporates Public Happiness and Life
Satisfaction. This shows that the SDGs are functional enough to report performance on many of
the contemporary and important movements driving urban areas in North America.
Chapters 9 and 10 of the book are about new
indicator definitions and methods that groups
have developed to address unique development
issues of importance in North America. The SDG
indicators do not cover the full complexity of all
development issues in North America. North
American countries and cities are unique in the
vast amount of research and resources that have
gone into tackling wicked problems of importance. As such, more robust methods are needed
to analyze and capture the nuances that may exist
within themes. According to the 2017 report of
the Secretary-General to the United Nations,
“Progress towards the Sustainable Development
Goals,” during the 10-year period from 2007 to
2016, 89 percent of countries around the world
conducted one housing census, while 25 countries did not have such a data source. The papers
in this section present examples from Youth
Development and Housing. Both examples develD. B. Abraham and S. D. Iyer
shows that as LA prepares for the 2028 Olympics,
the SDG framework can help set priorities for
ongoing work towards a comprehensive vision
for the city. In Houston, Dr. David Abraham
reveals the city’s history of engagement with sustainable development thought leaders and institutions, dating back from the 1970s to today.
However, as Dr. Abraham points out, in his comparison of SDG performance in Houston and the
top 100 most populous metros in the United
States, Houston stakeholders need to tackle the
fundamental issue of sprawl to significantly
improve the sustainability performance of the
region.
Although the introduction of the SDGs was
new in North American cities in 2015, the idea of
measuring and tracking sustainable development
was certainly not. Chapters 5 and 6 of the book
provide city-level examples of mapping and
adapting existing sustainable development
frameworks established in North America to the
SDG framework. Maria Spiliotopoulou and Dr.
Mark Roseland discuss the urgency for local
action for achieving the global goals so that utilizing an adopted framework better mobilizes
action toward implementing and monitoring the
SDGs locally. They provide research findings for
a complex matching and mapping exercise to
show the relationship between the SDGs, the
Community Capital Framework, and local goals
for municipalities in British Columbia. The team
of authors from California-based Applied Survey
Research describes how and why it was possible
to connect their long-standing work evaluating
the Community Assessment Project in Santa
Cruz County to the global goals. They explain
that three conditions are necessary for any framework to successfully apply the SDGs locally: (1)
a prior commitment to well-being for all which
aligns with the priorities of the SDGs for leaving
no one behind, (2) experience with creating a
measurement system that tracks well-being, and
(3) the ability to coordinate action across multisector stakeholders.
Chapters 7 and 8 of the book are about the
dual challenge of both national mobilization and
local engagement of SDGs. Indices and online
Community Indicator System (CIS) portals are
recommended, respectively, as national- and
local-level tools to manage and track local-level
performance differences on SDGs. Jessica Espey
of the Sustainable Development Solutions
Network (SDSN) writes about the group’s opportunities and challenges in preparing a national US
Index for the SDGs. She presents the need to also
complement such an effort with local-level action
on SDGs, since city-level mayors are politically
and thematically key stakeholders in developing
sustainability policy. Jennifer Temmer and Stefan
Jungcurt of the International Institute for
Sustainable Development (IISD) focus on the thematic benefits of community and city-level adaptation of the SGDs, before they present the
benefits of a novel CIS portal their group developed for use by cities interested in reporting on
the SDGs. Their research points to five predominant thematic indicator measurement movements
that can be addressed by implementing the SDGs.
These are Quality of Life, Healthy Communities,
Sustainability, Government Performance and
Benchmarking, and “Subjective Well-Being,”
which incorporates Public Happiness and Life
Satisfaction. This shows that the SDGs are functional enough to report performance on many of
the contemporary and important movements driving urban areas in North America.
Chapters 9 and 10 of the book are about new
indicator definitions and methods that groups
have developed to address unique development
issues of importance in North America. The SDG
indicators do not cover the full complexity of all
development issues in North America. North
American countries and cities are unique in the
vast amount of research and resources that have
gone into tackling wicked problems of importance. As such, more robust methods are needed
to analyze and capture the nuances that may exist
within themes. According to the 2017 report of
the Secretary-General to the United Nations,
“Progress towards the Sustainable Development
Goals,” during the 10-year period from 2007 to
2016, 89 percent of countries around the world
conducted one housing census, while 25 countries did not have such a data source. The papers
in this section present examples from Youth
Development and Housing. Both examples develD. B. Abraham and S. D. Iyer