Abstract

Achieving sustainability is the common challenge facing each and every city across the world; simultaneously, sustainability indicators are increasingly recognised as the most effective mean to measuring sustainability trends. Unlike cities in developing countries, some cities in developed countries have evolved their own urban sustainability indicators; however, most of these have failed to meet the holistic purpose of Sustainable Development. Equally, an absence of urban sustainability indicators makes it difficult to measure the performance of the cities, resulting in unexpected outcomes. First this paper will give an overview of a sustainable city. By explaining chapters 28 and 40 of the UN’s Agenda 21, it will describe the importance of sustainability indicators and their role in the assessment of urban sustainability to bridge data gaps and improve information availability. From an extensive literature review, this paper will identify the common features and purposes of urban sustainability indicators. For better understanding, this paper will examine various existing city-level sustainable development indicators and develop a comparative analysis to explain the insufficiencies of these indicators. Further, it will argue that for developing countries, examining the current state of sustainability is more relevant than the traditional process to measure sustainability trends. In conclusion, this paper will suggest some effective measures to improve the efficiency of urban sustainability indicators in different contexts.