Towards Balanced Metrics: Evaluating Social Sustainability in Urban Policy Design

Abstract

The assessment of social sustainability is fundamental to designing public policies, especially in housing, in order to align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a condition established by Europe for access to public funding, as is the case of the EU’s Next Generation funds. While environmental sustainability has clear criteria, social sustainability lacks standardized metrics. This study reviews the evaluation of social sustainability in urban environments based on academic publications and certifying bodies. From the review, it is clear that the publications and tools provide indicators that assess neighborhood cohesion and urban design, but both approaches neglect social equity, a key element of sustainability despite its importance already highlighted in the Brundtland Report (1987). Based on the information collected, an assessment tool is proposed that considers 45 indicators grouped into three categories: social equity, neighborhood cohesion and urban design. In addition, the indicators are aligned with the SDGs. Alignment with 12 of the 17 SDGs is obtained, with 11 having the highest alignment with the indicators (80%) followed by 10 and 16 (27% each). The proposed framework allows for adequate representativeness in the evaluation of social cohesion, overcoming the underrepresentation of previous proposals. In addition, the work highlights the need to advance social equity to ensure truly sustainable urban environments. Issues such as social inclusion, redistributive policies, accessibility to housing and employability must occupy a central place in the evaluations. The challenge now is to define solid indicators that allow objective evaluations that place the value of equity as a pillar of social sustainability.