Sustainable neighborhoods are residential areas where environmental responsibility, social justice, and economic viability are realized. Although the importance of sustainable neighborhoods is emphasized in research, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and nearly all planning and policy documents, identifying, monitoring, and developing the elements of sustainability at the neighborhood level is still in its infancy.
The majority of decisions relevant to residents and the environment are ultimately made at the local level. Municipalities can influence where and what is built, how transportation within the municipality is organized, where schools are placed, or what kinds of business activities are supported by special measures. Issues related to urban growth, ecological and economic sustainability, and social separation and segregation essentially go back to individual neighborhoods, building practices, and related steering of land use. Many decisions take shape on plots, blocks, or residential areas. Additionally, the goal of our national land use and construction legislation has long been “to ensure that the use of land and water areas and building activities on them create preconditions for a favourable living environment and promote ecologically, economically, socially and culturally sustainable development.” (Land Use and Building Act 132/1999 1§).
However, it is still unclear what kinds of characteristics should be nurtured in the local environment, or what kinds of changes should occur on the path towards a more sustainable future. Sustainable development, as part of the municipalities' statutory task of promoting vitality, needs support from clearer content that takes into account the specific characteristics of neighborhoods and the needs of residents. Overall, neighborhood-specific characteristics and concepts aimed at sustainable development should somehow be tested and evaluated—preferably in a way that allows the assessment of the presented evaluations.
The neighbourhood sustainability indicator project was born out of the need to compile and identify the views of various researchers and disciplines on the contents, diversity, and required measures of neighborhood-specific sustainable development. We invited 52 top researchers from over 20 different scientific disciplines to participate in the 'professors' roundtable discussions.
The project has three main goals. The first is to identify and compile indicators of social, ecological and economic sustainability that could be utilized on a city block and neihgbourhood level. With the help of indicators, it is possible to monitor and compare the state of sustainability of different city districts.
Another goal is to promote multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary academic research cooperation and dialogue. Achieving urban sustainability requires a discussion that crosses disciplines, in which even those who do not primarily consider themselves urban scientists should participate.
The third goal of the project is to increase the interaction between research and other actors in society and the effectiveness of scientific research. The book published in the project, Towards more sustainable residential areas - indicators of neighborhood and block sustainability, is an easy-to-understand and practical collection that we hope will serve as an opening for discussion among decision-makers, urban planners and city residents.
Towards more sustainable residential areas - indicators of neighborhood and block sustainability is a book published by Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies Urbaria in spring 2024, which presents 29 indicators that came up in the researchers' roundtable discussions. The book contains reflections and suggestions on how neighborhood level sustainability could be monitored, measured and compared between different areas. The indicators are categorised under four themes covering I) Communities and Inclusion, II) Wellbeing and Social Disadvantage, III) The State of Nature and Urban Green Space and IIII) Homes and Streets.
We hope that the book will inspire and guide cities and municipalities to examine the state of sustainability also at a very local level and by residential area. In the next phase of the project, we will pilot sustainability indicators in cooperation with municipalities and cities. The English translation of the book will be published in Fall 2024.