A Diversity of Eco-Developments: An Overview and Comparison of Sustainability in Six Eco-Developments

Abstract

The notion that our future will be determined by how sustainable we make urban regions has gained momentum over the past few decades with countries all over the world now aspiring towards sustainable urban development. While several sustainability assessment tools are available as means of accreditation for these developments, the subjective nature of weighting and scoring, lack of representation of the social and economic dimensions and overall interpretation of indicators represented in these tools has garnered increasing attention and discussion in academia. This paper attempts to formulate a multi-dimensional pathway to guide the formation of a substantial comparative framework for a wide diversity of eco-developments. This method may be helpful in shedding light on eco-development trends from which sustainability assessment tools can base their frameworks to address shortcomings.