Cities' governments and local communities face an unprecedented support at the international arena to move towards sustainable development. The New Urban Agenda, and the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Agenda 2030,... [ view full abstract ]
Cities' governments and local communities face an unprecedented support at the international arena to move towards sustainable development. The New Urban Agenda, and the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Agenda 2030, namely the goal on inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities, impel local governments and local communities to embrace new sustainability policies and innovative strategies. Although changing governance practices and institutions or implementing innovative disruptions at the local level are long term and contested processes, there has been a variety of tools and policy instruments, from more standardized to more localized, that have been tried at this level of action. This research overviews the implementation of ISO 37101, which aims to support communities to become more sustainable, resilient and intelligent. Based on the Deming cycle of continuous improvement and risk-based thinking, concepts commonly associated with standards of quality, environment and safety management, the ISO 37101 presents itself as a tool to support the planning and management of sustainable development policies for local communities. The aim of this study is to understand how this standard can be implemented in a specific governance context and what can be its contribution to sustainable development, in the Portuguese context. In Portugal, Local Agenda 21 processes have been implemented with very heterogeneous and specific agendas, adapted to each local context, and a previous attempt in the country in 2007 to standardize these processes failed completely. Through the study of the implementation of this management system we expect to better understand the advantages, disadvantages, difficulties and impacts on its implementation at the local planning level, particularly given the previous political barriers to this type of approach in the country. The methodology used in this work is based on a literature review on relevant public policy instruments to promote sustainable development at the local level. Then, after the analysis of ISO 37101 requirements and the results of its implementation in different countries, it will go through an investigation of a case study in Portugal. The city of Porto was the first city in Portugal to apply the ISO 37210 sustainability indicator system and can therefore be a critical case to assess the challenges of taking the steps to implement the ISO 37101. After a characterization and contextualization of this Portuguese city regarding sustainable development, questionnaires and interviews will be applied to various civil society actors in order to evaluate the role of this management system, analysing expected results, advantages, challenges and limitations to its implementation. This discussion can contribute not only to support local processes that aim to follow a sustainability development management system based on the requirements of ISO 37101 but also to understand their role against more contextualised approaches for the sustainable planning and management of the territories.
Keywords: local communities; local governments; ISO 37101; sustainable development policies; management system
6b. Urban and rural development
