Quantitative Evaluation of Settlement Sustainability Policy (QESSP); Forward Planning for 26 Irish Settlements

Brian G. Fitzgerald, Travis O'Doherty, Richard Moles and Bernadette O'Regan
Additional contact information
Brian G. Fitzgerald: Environment Department, Limerick City and County Council, County Hall, Dooradoyle, Limerick, Ireland
Travis O'Doherty: South West Regional Planning Authority, Innishmore, Ballincollig, Co. Cork, Ireland
Richard Moles: Department of Chemical and Environmental Science, Centre for Environmental Research, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Bernadette O'Regan: Department of Chemical and Environmental Science, Centre for Environmental Research, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 2, 1-21

Abstract: Urban areas are increasingly associated with negative environmental impacts due to concentrated resource consumption; however urban areas also offer economies of scale in terms of service provision. There is no accepted mechanism to aid decision-makers in policy selection to determine where to promote population growth or how to select settlement specific policies to improve sustainability of urban areas. There is strong political desire for methods assessing policy implementation impact on overall sustainability targets, but this has proved challenging, as views on the meaning of sustainability vary, and methods developed satisfying scientists’ needs for rigor are deemed too complex and inadequately transparent by decision-makers. Sustainability measurement is vital to check whether a new policy, decision or technical innovation is helpful in enhancing sustainability. By 2055 estimates indicate that 75 percent of the world population will live in urban areas, highlighting the importance of promoting low cost policy decisions providing greatest environmental benefit, with short implementation timescale. This paper describes an evidence-based method developed and piloted to address these drivers and provide a decision support system for planners and policy-makers developed for Irish settlements with population range 500–20,000, which may have application elsewhere.

Keywords: urban planning; sustainable development; policy making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/2/1819/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/2/1819/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:2:p:1819-1839:d:45684

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().