Main programme

Vision

The overall vision of the programme is to develop a comprehensive and transparent framework that encourages key decision-makers to systematically assess the sustainability of urban developments taking account of scale, life cycle, location, context and all stakeholder values.

Overall aims of the main research programme

The long-term aim of the main programme is to promote sustainable development by providing models and toolkits for all decision-makers associated with urban development which will:

• be inclusive, holistic and multi-dimensional, capable of addressing social, technical, environmental, economic and political issues simultaneously;
• be flexible, satisfying the needs of different stakeholders in different contexts at different stages in an urban development or project;
• be internally compatible and capable of aggregation and disaggregation;
• be responsive to the decision-making process;
• track both resources consumed and the outputs of their products;
• take account of complex interfaces between different stakeholders, members of the supply chain, rural and urban contexts, local and global issues.

Programme objectives

The objectives of the programme are to:

• develop a holistic, integrated and multi-dimensional toolkit capable of assessing the sustainability of urban developments at any scale from component through to complete development and for all stages of their life-cycles;
• develop methodologies and processes for assessing key issues relevant to sustainability in the urban environment;
• develop procedures for identifying and taking proper account of stakeholder values in the assessment process;
• investigate the feasibility of assessing urban sustainability using a common measure;
• investigate and identify barriers to sustainability assessment and provide tools and approaches to overcome them; investigate knowledge processes in sustainability assessment and provide mechanisms that will enhance knowledge transfer, communication, stakeholder awareness and stakeholder competence.