Maryam Talaee - Department of Architecture, Shahinshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahinshahr, Iran

Urban sustainability factors are tools that spur city planners, city managers and policymakers on to measure the socio-economic and environmental impact of, for example, current urban designs, infrastructures, policies, waste disposal systems, pollution and access to services by citizens. They allow for the diagnosis of problems and pressures, and thus the identification of areas that would profit from being addressed through good governance and science-based responses. They also allow cities to monitor the success and impact of sustainability interventions. The challenge for urban authorities is deciding which tool would address the needs and goals of a particular city, which would be easy to implement and which are worth the financial and human effort. In some cases, a selection of different tools may be desirable for a city home to a small population; in others, a large city may want to join an established global program of indicators.This report aims to provide local government factors and stakeholders with a concise guide to the best currently available indicator tools for sustainable cities, focusing on the environmental dimension. The tools summarized herein were chosen based on scalability and ease of use, and the positive and negative aspects of each for different situations of cities are addressed, along with real-world case studies that demonstrate how they can be implemented.

Sustainable City, Urban Design, RFSC indicator