Sustainable Urban Development - a Nexus of Understanding, Methodology, and Governance

Abstract

Sustainability management requires facing tradeoffs between socioeconomic and environmental objectives, while integrating contextual variations into strategic and business goals to create a win-win situation. However, sustainability literature has shown a lack of consensus on the conceptualization, measurement, and operationalization of sustainability. Context-driven objectives demand multidimensional and multilateral synergies and tradeoffs that do not possess a simple generic pathway to achieve sustainable urban development. This dissertation explores the role of conceptual and methodological approaches in determining sustainability objectives, evaluating the policy development process and its implications, and identifying opportunities and constraints for local governance to localize sustainability. The study identified constraints to localizing Sustainable Development Goals and affordable housing that include distribution of authority, functional and geographic mapping, and assigning roles and responsibilities. These factors set a foundation for the subsidiarity principle, which guarantees delegation of commitment to a lower level of governance provided the federal government's role in ensuring systematic implementation of regulations and provision of necessary resources. Furthermore, the interconnectedness of SDGs requires synergies and tradeoffs to overcome potential hindrances and supplement multilateral efforts. Similarly, the complexity of the housing system demands a multidimensional approach, multisectoral integration, and a tradeoff between socioeconomic and environmental objectives. Such complexity wouldn’t be easy to address without innovative and out-of-the-box solutions to address socioeconomic and geographic differences between cities. In a complex urban environment, policies developed without considering functional and normative objectives, intergovernmental relationships, and local capacity may lead to unaccounted outcomes. Findings from this research highlight that the housing policies developed and implemented without an integrated approach may fail to achieve their intended objectives. The study confirms that speculation taxes are not an effective tool in curbing house prices. Similarly, considering the role of property taxes in providing public services, delinking property taxes from a potential contributor to house prices would provide a better lens to develop local housing policies. Furthermore, the study also confirms that the housing market can be better assessed at a local scale, considering geographical influence in conjunction with investment trends. The research advances the knowledge and theory in housing system analysis, sustainable housing, and policy-related decision-making. It paves the way for a theoretical extension of the subsidiarity theory, facilitating local government to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals framework. The evaluation further helps to generalize the conceptual approach for the subsidiarity principle in governing sustainability at a local level.