A framework of indicator system for measuring Taipei's urban sustainability

Ever since the Earth Summit was launched at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992, the concept of sustainability has exerted significant influence on policy at local level. Sustainable urban development has also become an important local strategy for global sustainability. Due to their integrative and forward-looking characteristics, sustainability indicators have been proposed to measure and evaluate urban development. After discussing the ecological economic dimension of urban sustainability, this paper presents a procedure and a conceptual framework of the indicator system for measuring Taipei's urban sustainability. On the basis of natural processes and evolving urban development, the approach to Taipei's sustainable development is defined as reinforcing Taipei's metropolitan life-support system through its economic vitality for enhancing Taipei's urban productivity and quality and making Taipei a national capital with blue-green characteristics. Based on the conceptual framework of urban ecological economic system, 80 indicators are selected through participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which can be used as policy-making indicators for measuring Taipei's urban sustainability. The policy-making indicators are further aggregated into 10 general public indicators and evaluated using signal lights (green, yellow and red). It is concluded that the proposed indicator system can provide evidence of progress on urban sustainability. Justification of public expenditure on urban development can therefore be evaluated. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.