A sustainable city index for Malaysia

Abstract

The assessment of a sustainable city is always related to the selection of sustainable development indicators. There are few initiatives for integrating indicators from various sectors to become an integrated index in Malaysia, whereas issues of sustainable development are interrelated. In search of an adequate set of indicators to develop an index, some existing indicators and indices have been reviewed. The purpose of this article is to develop a set of criteria, indicators and indices for sustainability assessment in major cities of Malaysia. The study is focused on the state indicators, and an indicator framework has been developed. Thirty indicators have been identified based on rationality and availability. The results show the score of indices range from 0.45 to 0.72. Sensitivity analysis has been conducted, showing that, overall, the major cities in Malaysia have a moderate performance towards development of a sustainable city. Their major weaknesses are in management and environmental services.

Keywords:

• city
• sustainable city
• indicator
• index
• sensitivity analysis

Acknowledgements

This work lies within the Sustainable City – Environmental Award Programme 2006/2007 of the Department of Environment in conjunction with the Department of Local Government and technical support from the Institute for Environment and Development, National University of Malaysia.