Establishing sustainable criteria for cities to drive the national sustainable development

23/08/2017

   1. Sustainable development cities

   In the era of globalisation and urbanisation, the character and position of cities, particularly mega cities, have increasing determining roles in regional and national sustainable development. According to the data of the United Nations Population Reference Bureau (PRB) published in 2004, the world population was 6,396 million, of which the proportion of urban residents was more than 50%, on average, of developed countries 76%, of remaining countries 41%. Also according to the data of PRB in July, 2014, the proportion of global urban residents was 54%, it is estimated that by 2050, more than 2.5 billion people will live in cities; the proportion of urban residents will be 66% globally.

Sustainable city is the harmonized and balanced development among economic development, social development and environmental protection

   In Việt Nam, the "renewal" (in 1986) has opened a rapid urbanization period. In 1990, there were 500 small and large urban areas; it was 649 in 2000 and in June, 2015, it was 778, of which there were two special urban areas, 17 type I, 25 type II, 43 type III, 90 type IV (town) and 601 type IV. Currently, the proportion of urban residents in Việt Nam is about 38%. According to Decision No. 445/QD-TTg, dated 7/4/2009 on orientating the planning of Việt Nam urban development in Việt Nam to 2025, vision to 2050, about 50% of the population will live in urban areas by 2025.

   According to ADB, the socio-economic development in different countries will take place in big cities. In ASEAN member states, nearly ¾ of GDP and about 2/3 of the national export product volume are contributed by urban areas such as Metro Bangkok (in 2005) which contributes up to 44% of Thailand’s GDP, Metro Manila (in 2006) making up 37% of the Philippines’s GDP, Hồ Chí Minh city (in 2006) accounting for 23.5% of the Việt Nam’s GDP.

   At the World Summit in 1992 in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 179 countries, including Việt Nam, agreed viewpoints on environmental protection and sustainable development, and considered it as the common responsibility of the whole humanity and agreed to endorse the Rio declaration on sustainable development (Agenda 21). On 17^th August, 2004, Việt Nam promulgated the strategic orientation on sustainable development sustainable development (Việt Nam’s Agenda 21) to promote sustainable development of the country based on the close and harmonized combination between economic development, social development and environmental protection. The Ministry of Planning and Investment has proposed the sustainable development indicators with 24 criteria. The sustainable development office, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) has proposed the index and criteria to assess the sustainability on natural resources and environment. This index consists of 10 themes; each theme has some indicators, totalled up to 27 indicators.

   However, by now, in Việt Nam, no provinces or cities develop plans for sustainable development, only Đà Nẵng city endorsed a plan and an orientation to become an environmental city by 2030. Therefore, the development and promulgation of the index on sustainable city in Việt Nam is necessary. Sustainable development of cities drives the national sustainable development.

   Currently, there are different concepts on cities relating sustainable development such as ecological city, green city, environmental city, environmental sustainable city, sustainable city, and liveable city. Therefore, it is necessary to unify definition of a sustainable city. It could be understood as "sustainable city development is the harmony and balance between economic development, social development and environmental protection, aiming to create living conditions of urban residents to be wealthier, happier and more comfortable for the current generation without causing burdens to the future generation".

   2. International experience in development of index on sustainable development

   In the world, many international organizations, the US, and European countries have proposed sustainable development index. Here are some typical criteria on sustainable cities:

   • Criteria on environmentally sustainable cities

   On the occasion of the World Environment Day (in 2005) in San Francisco (America), UNDP and UNEP organized an international conference on development of environmentally sustainable cities, with representatives of cities of more than 100 countries and many international organizations. The Conference has adopted the "United Nations Urban Environmental Accords in 2005". Accordingly, the accords identify systems of criteria for environmentally sustainable cities, covering seven areas: energy; waste reduction; urban design; urban nature; transportation; environmental health and water. Each area has three criteria, totalled up to 21 criteria.

   In 2005, the Secretariat of ASEAN launched the campaign to develop environmental cities and assess, select and award environmental cities in ASEAN countries every two years. The assessment of environmental cities of ASEAN is based on four criteria: clean air, clean water, clean soil and biodiversity. Hạ Long, Đà Nẵng and Bắc Ninh cities are recognized as ASEAN environmental cities.

   • Sustainable urban project in Europe coordinated by the International Institute for the Urban Environment with the participation of 12 cities of Denmark, Germany, Belgium, England, Spain, and Italy. The results of five years implementation (1985 -1990) showed that the project has developed 10 European sustainable city criteria: clean environment; green space; effective natural resources use; environmental quality; transportation comfort and safety; green economy; landscape conservation, cultural and historical relics conservation, biodiversity conservation; community participation; social equality, gender balance; social welfare, and good living conditions.

   • Sustainable city assessment criteria in England

   Since 2007, the "Forum for the Future" in England has conducted the assessment of sustainable development for cities based on 13 criteria covering three thematic areas: environmental impacts consisting four criteria (air quality, environmental impacts on ecosystems, solid wastes, and biodiversity conservation); living standards with five criteria (infants health, life expectancy of residential community, transportation, job, education, and green space); response to the future consisting of four criteria (response to climate change, competitive capacity, waste recycling and reuse, security and food safety).

   • Plan for sustainable city development in Minnesota (America)

   Since 2007, the Government of Minneapolis city in Minnesota (America) has proposed the plan for city’s sustainable development with 26 criteria, divided into three themes:

   - Health and life, consisting of six criteria: Health of infants; pregnancy rate of the youth; rate of HIV infection in community; resident weight index; resident respiration index; lead poisoning in community.

   - Environmental impacts, consisting of 12 criteria: Response to climate change; proportion of renewable energy; air quality; area of green trees; proportion of residents using non-mechanic transportation vehicles; public transport; noise pollution; pollutants in rain water; river water quality; labour - job; food safety, and waste reduction and recycling.

   - Social issues and livings of communities, consisting of eight criteria: Proportion of deaths due to environmental pollution; violations and violence rate; community consultation by authorities and participation of the communities; rate of homeless people; housings for low income people; jobs and poverty; average rate of high school graduation; and arts and economic development level.

   • Criteria of sustainable cities

   The Design and Consultancy for Natural and Built Assets (ARCADIS, 2015) has introduced the sustainable city index with 20 criteria. This criteria index is the synthesis of practical assessment on sustainable cities in 50 top cities in the world such as London, New York, San Francisco, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Moscow, Rom, Toronto, Melbourne, Sydney, Mexico city, Johannesburg…; cities in Asia such as Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Wuhan, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila, Mumbai, New Delhi; and consultations with other international organizations in the world following the principle of "sustainable city is the balance and harmony between demands on economic and social development and environmental protection".

   The ARCADIS sustainable city index consists of 20 criteria, divided into three themes: People with eight criteria (literacies, education; green space; health; jobless rate, income inequality, labour and job, and housing price); Planet with six criteria (energy consumption share; natural disasters; air pollution; greenhouse gas emission; water supply and environmental sanitation; and solid waste management) and Profits with six indicators (transportation; energy efficiency, connectivity with the world urban network; GDP per capita; favourable investment; and goods price and commercial costs).

   In general, these above indexes are concise, short, transparent, and balanced among economic, social and environmental aspects; the number of criteria is 10 at the lowest, 26 at the highest and 18 - 20 at the medium range. Criteria of sustainable city come from developed countries; therefore they pay more attention on living standards and environmental protection than on urban economic development. However, it is impossible to have a common sustainable city index for the whole world, particularly for poor and developing countries, which are learning experience from developed countries.

3. Proposal of the framework for sustainable city index in Việt Nam

   Firstly, the sustainable city index must ensure following principles: short, concise, and transparent, and covering basic contents and balanced and harmonised among three economic, social and environmental factors with about 20 criteria; feasible and quantitative assessment based on available information and data, such as data in the statistics books and annual reports of cities; no repeating such as the transportation system is an economic activity but it is also an activity to enhance the commute of local people, so it can belong to social theme at the same time it also relates to environmental pollution. However, transportation is just one criterion in one theme.

   Based on above principles and reference to international and domestic materials, the proposed framework on sustainable city index is illustrated in Table 1.

Table 1. Proposal of sustainable city index framework in Việt Nam

 

Theme	No.	Sustainable city criteria	Scale	Explanations
I. Economic	1	GDP per capita	20	GDP per capita Annual growth rate
	2	Commercial conditions	7	Low investment expense, fast payment procedures, Financial transparency, corruption prevention
	3	Transportation	8	- Road system km/km2, public transport, traffic safety
	4	Price of real estate and consumption products	7	Price of housing, price of consumption goods, Service price
	5	Energy use efficiency	8	Consumption of kg of oil or equivalent per 1000 USD GDP
		Total	50
II. Socio	6	Education	6	- Rate of pupils, rate of students /1000 people; rate of illiterate people of more than 15 years old
	7	Community health	6	- Rate of infant mortality; average life expectancy; number of patient beds per 1000 people
	8	Housing	7	- Floor area/capita; housings for low income people; removal of "slumps"
	9	Income inequality	6	- Gain index
	10	Jobless rate	6	% total number of people in labour age
	11	Rate of poor households	6	- % of poor households according to regulation
	12	Social crimes	6	- Rate of drug addiction, rate of HIV infection, number of social criminal cases
	13	Area of green trees	7	- Rate of green tree area/total city area (m2 green tree area per capita)
		Total	50
III. Environmental	14	Energy consumption per capita	6	Energy consumption of kg of oil or equivalent/capita; rate of renewable energy
	15	Air pollution and noise pollution	6	- Concentration of participate particulars (µg/m3), concentration of SO2 (µg/m3), noise level (dB)
	16	CO2 emission	6	- tonnes of CO2 per capita per year
	17	Water supply and environmental sanitation	7	- Rate of people to be supplied with standardised water (l/capita per day), street sanitation
	18	Solid waste management	7	- Rate of solid waste collection, rate of landfills, rate of converted to compost, rate of energy production
	1 19	River, lake pollution	6	- Concentration of BOD (mg/l), COD (mg/l) and suspended solid waste (mg/l)
	20	Flooding	6	- number of areas flooded by rain more than 50mm/time, Number of floods/year, average flooding time
	21	Response to disasters and climate change	6	- response to natural disaster - response to climate change
		Total	50
		Total	150

 

Based on the assessment, the sustainable city can be categorised into three levels:

The first level sustainable city: total scale between 136 and 150;

The second level sustainable city: total scale between 121 and 135;

The third level sustainable city: total scale between 105 and 120.

Below 105 city is not considered as a sustainable city.

     REFERENCE

Phạm Ngọc Đăng (edited), Nguyễn Việt Anh, Phạm Hải Hà, Nguyễn Văn Muôn. Green works design solutions in Việt Nam. Construction Publishing House, Hà Nội -2014

ARCADIS. Design and Consultancy for Natural and Built Assets. SUSTAINABLE CITIES INDEX - 2015. https://s3.amazonaws.com/arcadis-whitepaper/arcadis-sustainable-cities-index-report.pdf

Science for Environment Policy Indicators for Sustainable Cities

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/indicators_ for_sustainable_cities_IR12_en.pdf

    The United Nations Urban Environmental Accords, 2005. www.sustainablepg.org/accords/accords.php)

Prof. Dr. Phạm Ngọc Đăng

Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment