The quantification of sustainability is a question that has grown in importance in academic and political circles as sustainability problems gain space in public awareness. In this debate, the installation of independent or consensus representative actors, called "Observatories", can play a relevant role for the establishment of these tools and their effective use in design, implementation and monitoring of public policies towards sustainability.
Whereas in international agreements there is rather a perspective on a country-scale sustainability, private individuals are striving for a more sustainable lifestyle and even cities start to look at their sustainability, mostly from an environmental perspective. In this context, what has been rarely looked at, is sustainability at a neighborhood scale. The construction of indicators to measure urban sustainability is not appropriate today to the neighborhood scale nor to the formulation of urban sustainability policies. A multi-criteria social evaluation is necessary as a general framework for the formulation of policies and adapted to the specificities of the local context.
The work of CEDEUS Sustainable Neighborhood Observatory (Observatorio de Barrios Sustentables, OBS) addresses this particular issue, that is: to explore how sustainability and its trajectory over time can be measured and evaluated at neighborhood scale in Chile, aiming at the formulation of neighborhood sustainability indicators that are compatible with the relevant international framework and at the same time relevant to the local conditions of the neighborhoods in Chile and to the formulation of policies Public policies.
This paper discusses these issues and presents a pilot study that aims to establish indicators of sustainability in neighborhoods, with the intention of becoming a working tool for neighborhood residents as well as for external actors who are interested in intervening. In a first round of meetings a list of 76 sustainability indicators was established based on a literature and policy review. These indicators are covering 10 sustainability areas, such as security, jobs and income, education, access and mobility, etc. For a pilot study 13 + 3 neighborhoods (barrios) were selected based on three criteria: (i) city size (metropolis, intermediate minor, or intermediate mayor), (ii) neighborhood context (central, peri-center, periphery), and (iii) percentage of population that needs social support (qualifying according to a social characterization named “ficha de protección social”). These 13 barrios are to be found in 6 cities, including Copiapó, La Serena, Santiago, Concepción, Temuco, and Valdivia. Additionally, three reference neighborhoods with a higher income or a central location were chosen to account for the full range of indicator values.
For these cases, we establish indicators of evaluation and impact of urban improvement in neighborhoods, differentiating it and relating it to other city, commune and housing scales and their surroundings, recognizing the cultural, social, socio-environmental, territorial and economic contexts of the neighborhood and local level and evaluate the information of the scale of districts according to the processes of social, economic and environmental sustainability and urban sustainability.
Keywords: urban analysis, neighborhoods, indicators, observatory, sustainability.
