A Global Review of the Emerging concepts of Sustainability Assessment and Sustainability Indicators in Urban Neighbourhood

Urban neighbourhoods are coherent socio-spatial units which reflect the ever-changing nature of society in physical form and alongside the basic unit of urban form which is a key element of urban planning. Neighbourhoods are perceived as the key to achieving sustainability and social justice (Castrignano and Landi, 2013). Also neighbourhoods has the potential to be seen as the future of urban spaces tackling problems linked with the modern world which includes climate change, globalisation, population increase, rapid urbanisation and social ills linked with increased population diversity and mobility and pressure on the natural environment (McGuire, 2013). As towns transform into urban environment it becomes very vital that this urban area develops in relation to sustainability principles which can be measured through the use of sustainability indicators and assessment concepts. Sustainability assessment and its indicators are tools that help make, suggest, support and implement decision-making in order to achieve sustainable development which can be used in urban planning within various socioenvironmental contexts. Existing sustainability assessment tools have focused more on building’s assessment rather than developing neighbourhood sustainability assessment methods. Sustainability assessment in general has emerged as a vital decision and support process in the development of assessment methods. The emergence of these methods is in response to a growing environmental crisis including a vast socio-economic inequality in global development.