Towards a Holistic Framework for the Olympic-Led Sustainable Urban Planning Process

Abstract

Sport mega-events, like the Olympics, are renowned for their urban and socioeconomic impacts. Based on a literature review, this paper proposes a holistic framework for an Olympic-led sustainable planning process, encompassing five key sustainable urban principles: accessibility, integration, flexibility/adaptability, security, and sustainability compliance. The framework provides a structured approach to assess these principles at three different temporal and spatial levels: location selection, pre-event planning, and post-event planning. The proposed holistic framework is applied to the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, revealing a significant disconnection between the initially promised sustainable development goals and practical achievements. While enhancements in accessibility were observed, the other key sustainable urban principles exhibited limited or negligible improvements. The proposed holistic framework holds the potential to foster lasting positive impacts and sustainable urban improvements in host cities, particularly in developing countries.