Pathways to Urban Sustainability Challenges and Opportunities for the United States (2016) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 Urban Sustainability Indicators and Metrics
2 Urban Sustainability Indicators and Metrics
Pages 14-26
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 14... ...
The goal is to identify a set of urban sustainability indicators that allow urban communities to diagnose problems and identify pressures that provide useful information to policy intervention. Many city leaders aspiring to change sustainability policies use indicators and metrics as motivation; they are also used to document progress as a source of urban pride.
|
From page 15... ...
ISO 37120:2014: Sustainable development of communities -- Indicators for city services and quality of life, and the ecological footprint protocol being piloted by the recent European Common Indicators report (Ambiente Italia Research Institute, 2003; Greenhouse Gas Protocol, 2015; ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, 2015; ISO, 2014)
|
From page 16... ...
) II, III, IV; CO2 emissions by the energy sector divided by the total electricity outputIV; annual amount of carbon dioxide emissions divided by the city populationIV Water Average annual precipitation per yearV; example of a waterway 2 1 1 3 4 applicable to the cityV; number of waterways impairedIV, V; water leakages in water distribution systemI; total water consumption II; water consumption per capita I, IV; drinking water quality III; water usageIV, V Land Green spaceI, II, III; existing tree canopyIV, V; landslide 2 1 2 3 3 vulnerabilityIV, V; park acres per 1,000 residentsIV,V; urban sprawlI, III Waste Total solid waste productionIV; percent of municipal solid 1 1 1 2 -- waste recycled I, IV; waste management indicatorII; solid waste managementIII Ecological Ecological footprint by Global Footprint NetworkV -- -- -- -- 1 footprint Natural hazards Natural hazards vulnerabilityIV, V; natural catastrophe exposureIII -- -- 1 1 1 vulnerability Economic Indicators Income City incomeII; gross domestic product (GDP)
|
From page 17... ...
V Equity Ratio of household income at the 80th% to income 20th%V; -- 1 3 3 3 Gini coefficientIII, IV; percentage of city population living in povertyIV, V; percentage of people affected by poverty, unemployment, lack of access to education, information, training, and leisureIII; percentage of low-income households within 1/4 mile of a neighborhood center and a transit stopII; ratio of economically active population to economically inactive populationIII; children in povertyIV, V Housing and Housing affordabilityIV; home ownershipV; percentage of the 1 2 -- 4 1 buildings homeless populationII; percentage of the population affected by poor housing conditionsII, IV; numbers of Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) -certified buildingsI; number of houses certified as energy efficient by certification organizationsIV; median house size of new constructionIV Citizen Percentage of people participating in local election or as active -- 1 -- 2 -- participation members in associations for urban improvement and quality of lifeII, IV; voter participation as a percentage of the populationIV NOTE: Superscripts indicate the urban sustainability system that uses each measure indicated in the right-hand columns: I = America Green City Index; II = Urban Sustainability Indicators; III = Sustainable Cities Index; IV = Sustainability Urban Development Indicators; V = The Academies' Pathways to Urban Sustainability Committee.
|
From page 18... ...
Reprinted with permission from the Science for Environment Policy. R03046, Figure 2-1, fixed image URBAN SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS AND METRICS The indicator dimensions and individual indicator descriptions that follow were used to construct Appendix B and provide the basis for applying the specific indicators to the case-study cities.
|
From page 19... ...
The federal Clean Air Act and its amendments set forth National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the six "criteria" pollutants carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxide, ozone, particulate matter, and sulfur oxide.1 Comparisons between the standards and monitored values for each pollutant are made according to a defined process that specifies the procedures for the monitoring and the applicable, defined geographic areas embodied in State Implementation Plans (SIPs)
|
From page 20... ...
.2 The federal Clean Water Act and its amendments require that impaired waterways, that is, those that violate federally approved state water quality standards, appear on a list under section 303(d)
|
From page 21... ...
. Natural Hazards Vulnerability The NOAA National Climatic Data Center Storm Events Database enables information to be extracted at the city level (by means of a county identifier)
|
From page 22... ...
ECONOMIC INDICATORS Business Sectors A general, descriptive indicator for a city's economic health begins with the relative concentration of employment, dollar value of business, and other metrics across economic sectors. Sectors initially provided by the U.S.
|
From page 23... ...
ercentage of population ages 16 and older unemployed but seeking work" by geographic area and time period (RWJF and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, 2015)
|
From page 24... ...
.4 The costs of electric power services are important indicators presented in Appendix B The average residential electricity rate shows how much money the average person spends at home per kilowatt hour consumed.5 The use of light-emitting diode street lighting reflects the use of sustainable means of providing energy for certain uses.
|
From page 25... ...
, percentage of the population below the federal poverty level (HHS CMS, 2015) ,7 and income gaps in terms of the ratio of the population above the 80th percentile and below the 20th percentile in gross annual income (RWJF and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, 2015; U.S.
|
From page 26... ...
Instead the commit tee provides an initial set of set of indicators, to serve as the basis for future research and development. Using the described indicator dimensions and corresponding individual indicator descriptions, Appendix B provides the foundation for applying these indicators to the profile cities in Chapter 4.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.