Indicator set for Sustainable Urban Development. City Monitor for Liveable and Sustainable Flemish cities.

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Related to Sustainable Cities, Sustainibility Indicators, Impact Assessments and Monitoring.

Abstract

The City Monitor is a policy instrument to measure the state of thirteen Flemish cities in 2004, 2006 and 2008. The community indicators of the City Monitor provide feedback on the evolution of a multitude of phenomena, and so they represent an opportunity for policy learning about the livability and sustainability of those cities. Indicators simplify the representation of societal problems and in that sense they are helping the communication between city authorities and their stakeholders. This book is a compilation of about two hundred sustainability indicators for 13 Flemish cities.
In this book we also focus on two innovative characteristics of the co-design methodology of the City Monitor. First of all, indicators were constructed on the basis of a normative vision about urban sustainability. We argue that a sustainability framework can give value added to map vital signs of the quality of life in Flemish cities. Secondly, the City Monitor was being developed with the participation of about two hundred experts, coming from city governments and other administrations, civil society and academic world. It is our argument that the participatory approach fosters the use of community indicators and generates interesting side effects. The City Monitor is certainly meant as an input for urban policy debate about the quality of life in the major Flemish cities.

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