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ABSTRACT
As interest in sustainability-related issues has increased over recent years, so too has urban sustainability risen to the fore, in academic, practitioner, and policymaking circles alike. Urban sustainability requires a balance between environmental concerns, the economy, and social development in urban areas. However, over the years, there has been an exponential increase in urban density, accompanied by increased economic activity and high levels of consumption, which have hindered urban planning and made the sustainable management of urban areas more difficult. It has therefore become increasingly necessary to combine the interests of the various stakeholders involved in – or affected by – urban planning measures, in order to achieve a balance between their needs, those of the environment and future generations, and the need for economic development. Sustainability evaluation models can in this sense be considered a baseline condition for sustainable development. However, most existing evaluation systems present limitations in terms of criteria identification and the calculation of the respective trade-offs. To address these issues, the current study aims to combine cognitive mapping and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritize the determinants of sustainable development in urban areas. The advantages and limitations of our proposal are also analyzed.
Acknowledgments
Records of the expert panel meetings, including pictures, software outputs, and nonconfidential information of the study, can be obtained from the corresponding author upon request. The authors gratefully acknowledge the superb contribution of the panel members: José Furtado, Luís Cid, Marco Monteiro, Miguel Bugalho, Pedro Pinto, and Tiago Cartaxo. This material is based upon work supported by INDEG-ISCTE, under URBANUS/INDEG-ISCTE/012016 Research Project.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.