Assessing the SDG11 on a Neighborhood Scale Through the Integrated Use of GIS Tools. An Italian Case Study

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 of the 2030 Agenda addresses issues of sustainable urban development and provides guidelines for monitoring progress, that should occur primarily at the neighborhood scale from which development begins. Thus, since the early 2000s many countries have developed Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tools (NSATs) as multi-criteria assessment tools for neighborhood sustainability using criteria and indicators, with the aim of encouraging sustainable urban planning. Although NSATs can be useful tools for choosing sustainable measures, they are not yet able to return an integrated view of urban sustainability. In parallel, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are tools used in planning to manage and spatialize urban data and are often combined with multi-criteria analysis tools to define the actual priorities to be pursued in terms of urban sustainability. Contributing to the literature on urban planning, this article explores the combination of SNAT and GIS tools with respect to the assessment of the sustainability of cities, with the aim of investigating at the Italian national level if and in what terms SNAT could be an operational tool to support urban planning, in view of the achievement of SDG11.