Understanding sustainability in the built environment : a framework for evaluation in urban planning and design

Lombardi, PL

Abstract

It has often been recognised that planning and design can play an important role in
the achievement of sustainable development of cities. However, problems still exist
with regards to both a clear understanding of sustainability in the built environment
and a means of evaluating it within the context of urban planning and design.
This thesis has compared different evaluation methods in urban planning, both
ex ante approaches and monitoring, and their philosophical paradigms. Some
significant limitations are identified and discussed in the context of sustainability,
such as the reductionism within many of the approaches and the lack of holism in the
evaluation. The identified deficiencies provide the motivation for the development of
a new framework which is able to integrate the different dimensions of sustainability
in the built environment. This is based on the Cosmonomic theory of Dooyeweerd
which has proved to be more appropriate than other philosophical paradigms in
achieving this task.
The theory is applied to the built environment for understanding sustainability
and developing a framework in planning evaluation. The framework helps decision
makers to critically identifSr the sustainability aspects involved in a (re)development
planning project, guiding them in the evaluation on the basis of a number of problem
solving methods. Some existing case studies are adopted to show the benefits of the
framework in the context of regeneration programmes for cities, management
policies for cultural heritage and environmental services.
The resulting framework provides a significant step forward in understanding
and evaluating the built environment in the context of a sustainable urban
development. It also has the potential to allow evaluation of the concept of
sustainability over time.

Citation

Lombardi, P. Understanding sustainability in the built environment : a framework for evaluation in urban planning and design. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Sep 19, 2011
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 19, 2011
• Award Date: Jan 1, 1999