From Scoring To Orienting: The Development Of
A Compass For Evaluating Sustainable Urban
Development At The Neighbourhood Scale
Author(s)
H. Vandevyvere
Abstract
Recent tools for the evaluation of sustainable neighbourhood performance have
been conceived as measuring instruments that deliver an unequivocal outcome in
the form of a score. The benefits of these tools in terms of benchmarking,
communication power and marketing are obvious. However, the complex tradeoffs
that characterize urban development projects complicate a straightforward
translation of ‘sustainability aspect’ to ‘score’, not at least because quantitative
and qualitative criteria must be combined into a final judgement. The
quantitative data uncertainties characteristic of many urban surveying processes
further add to the problem. Quantifying the unquantifiable may therefore be
considered as the Achilles’ heel of these evaluation tools. A more processoriented
guidance can then offer an alternative.
The present contribution describes an approach that combines scoring with
arguing as a way out of the difficulties of mere quantification. Attention is
deviated from the single score to the wider panorama of contributing factors.
Three elements provide the basis for the development of the method. Referring
to research in political sciences, indicators are primarily conceived as ‘boundary
institutions’ that facilitate information exchange between scientists, decision
makers and stakeholders. A new form of radar diagram is developed for a better
visualisation of complex valuations, minimizing perception bias while
maximizing useful information content. Performance thresholds and qualitative
accounting are finally added as indispensible components of the judgement
palette. The resulting tool thus functions as a compass rather than a gauge.
Keywords: sustainable urban development, indicator system, neighbourhood,
assessment, multimodal system analysis, radar diagram.
Keywords
sustainable urban development, indicator system, neighbourhood,
assessment, multimodal system analysis, radar diagram.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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