The Neighbourhood Sustainability Indicator Project

Transformative changes and integrated approaches are desperately needed to overcome contemporary urban challenges globally. Cities possess immense power to drive sustainable futures as implementing local innovations and policies can influence the advancement of sustainability practices on a higher level of governance, and also inspire other cities to follow suit to take meaningful action.

To understand what we hope our futures to look like is one thing, but the work must begin with understanding where we are now. In the face of this responsibility, policymakers are in need of help in a search for assessment and development tools for sustainability. To spread information and support the implementation of scientific urban research, the Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (Urbaria) launched a project in 2023 with an intention to identify indicators suitable for measuring sustainability in a city block, or neighbourhood, level. One of the main outcomes of the project is a book, which presents 29 sustainability indicators in detail.

As said, municipalities are key players on how cities are developed. In practice, questions related to urban growth, ecological and economic sustainability, social separation, and segregation often go back to individual neighbourhoods, construction methods, and related steering of land use. Efficient and equitable realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) requires place-specific planning and implementation, which is why neighbourhood scale assessment is needed for urban sustainability transformations. The neighbourhood scale is suitable for showing the relationship between the individual and the city and, therefore, can also be used to highlight and address inequalities between different parts of the city.

The project aimed to create a comprehensive list of indicators to help cities evaluate and monitor sustainability through social and ecological perspectives. With ten interdisciplinary round table discussions with leading Finnish scholars, 130 indicators were identified and out of these, the most promising ones were selected. The ultimate goal was to initiate open and diverse discussion with researchers, urban planners, policy-makers, and residents of Finnish cities by compiling existing scientific knowledge in an easily readable form.

The indicators are now compiled in the book Towards More Sustainable Residential Areas – indicators of neighbourhood and block sustainability. These 29 indicators provide a diverse representation across scientific disciplines of factors that influence neighborhood sustainability. The book categorises social and ecological sustainability indicators under four themes: communities and inclusion, wellbeing and social disadvantage, the state of nature and urban green space, and homes and streets.

Many of the indicators are ready to be utilized in practice, with the precondition that cities or countries have the available data. For example, tree canopy cover or the ratio between impermeable and permeable surfaces require spatial data, but are relatively straightforward tools for assessing ecological sustainability of cities. The book also contains a handful of indicators that do not require substantial data sets and which can be studied with surveys. As an example, neighbourhood cohesion, the sense of connection and belonging within a community, could be studied by asking residents to assess statements, such as “I can influence matters related to our block” on a scale of 1-10.

However, some of the articles showed that more coherent data collection and standardisation is needed before implementing certain indicators. A prominent example of this is crime as an indicator – statistics of crime can become skewed, as not all crime is formally reported and comes to the attention of the authorities.

“Should I go to work today by car or bike? If I go by bike, will I make it in time to the day-care centre to pick up my children? What about groceries? Or should I work from home and save the time it takes to commute?” People make these kinds of choices everyday. Indicators that measure regional accessibility describe individuals’ opportunities for interacting with places and services making accessibility a great indicator for assessing social sustainability. Furthermore, poor accessibility can increase risk for social exclusion and affect individual well-being.

In the book, it is suggested that accessibility indicators should include multidimensional and multitemporal factors, such as different modes of transportation, variation in time and between individuals, quality of the mobility environment, and environmental costs caused by mobility choices.

From the perspective of the sustainability of mobility, simple accessibility indicators may include:

• the ratio of travel time between regions using sustainable modes of transport (including walking, cycling and public transport) in relation to private car use,
• the total share of the population that can access essential places, for example, the nearest grocery store, school, or health centre on foot.
• the total number of jobs accessible using sustainable modes of transportation within reasonable travel time.

Like other indicators in the book, regional accessibility indicators can be used to make comparisons between neighbourhoods and to understand how changes in accessibility affect the well-being and equality of citizens.

As this important repository of neighbourhood level sustainability indicators is compiled in the form of a book, the aim is to raise as much awareness about it as possible. We at the Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies hope the book sparks interest in further research with regard to the presented indicators.

The free English translation of Towards More Sustainable Residential Areas – indicators of neighbourhood and block sustainability can be downloaded here: https://doi.org/10.31885/9789515183088

Authors:

Juulia Lehtinen
Mikko Posti
Jussi Jännes
Jordyn Czyzewski

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