Urban Planning and Design Research (UPDR) Volume 2, 2014
www.seipub.org/updr
A Study of Practical Urban Sustainability Evaluation Indicators in Italy and Japan –Focusing on Influences on Consciousness and Actions of Local Governments Kaichi Ichikawa*1, Hisashi Kubota2 Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, 255 Shimo-okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama, 338-8570, Japan *1
ichikawa@dp.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp; 2 hisashi@dp.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp
Abstract In recent years, a movement to develop practical evaluation indicators aiming at promoting realization of sustainable cities began to appear in the private sectors in Japan. However, the issue is whether such evaluation indicators are implemented continuously and influence consciousness and actions of local governments. This paper is to verify the effectiveness of the evaluation indicators by identifying the influence of the indicators on consciousness and actions of local governments. In this study, a comparative analysis of the practical evaluation indicators of Europe and Japan was conducted based on interview surveys and questionnaire surveys. Europe has over ten years of experience in development of evaluation indicators towards urban sustainability. We adopted “Urban Ecosystem” of Italy among the European evaluation indicators as a case example because it represents the leading practical indicators in Europe. Meanwhile, “Nikkei Indicators” developed by a Japanese research institution was chosen as practical evaluation indicators of Japan. As a result of examining the degree of presence of “contribution to local governments”, a certain influence was observed on the consciousness and actions of respective local governments of both countries. Keywords Urban Sustainability; Practical Evaluation Indicators; Influences on Local Governments; Japanese and Italian Cities
Introduction Europe, more advanced compared with Japan in realization of sustainable cities, is also one step ahead in development of the practical evaluation indicators aiming to promote the realization of sustainable cities. The urban evaluation indicators adopted by the governments and private sectors in Europe emphasize that the three aspects of environment, economy and society (fairness and equality) called the “Triple Bottom Line” (TBL), which focuses on environmental
preservation, are developed in a well-balanced manner. These indicators aim to develop economy and society under environmental constraints so as not to put a heavy burden on the environment in future. Like in Europe, a move to break away from fossil fuel to cope with the climate change and the increasing momentum of decoupling from nuclear power generation are prevailing recently in Japan. Japan is now urged to realize the sustainable cities based on the “TBL.” However, in order to promote such efforts, it is required to develop practical evaluation indicators that allow for defining sustainable cities specifically, and a study toward that goal is essential. Effectiveness of the practical evaluation indicators, however, needs to be recognized so that they may be accepted widely and established firmly in society. To confirm the effectiveness of the evaluation indicators, approaches from various viewpoints including validity of the calculation method of the indicators as well as validity of integration of the indicators are considered useful. However, as the objective of the practical evaluation indicators is to promote sustainable cities, the viewpoint of “contribution to local governments” or usefulness of the indicators in policies and actions of the local governments could serve as an important lead to confirm their effectiveness. This study, accordingly, aims to identify the “contribution of the practical evaluation indicators to local governments”, which began to develop based on TBL in Europe and Japan. As case examples of the practical evaluation indicators, "Urban Ecosystem" (“Ecosistema Urbano” in Italian)" developed by Ambiente Italia, a private research institution in Italy, and the "Nikkei Sustainable Urban Evaluation Indicators" (hereafter referred to as “Nikkei Indicators”) adopted by Nihon Keizai Shimbun
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