An Urban Planning Sustainability Framework for Multifunctional Design Solutions

Climate emergency and the increasing population growth are challenging water security and sustainable urban design in our cities worldwide. A sustainable urban development project will be the one that minimises the pressures on the natural environment and on the existing urban infrastructure systems, including water, energy, and land. From the UK perspective, these pressures are particularly critical in London, where a shortage of housing has been experienced during last years and the region is considered highly vulnerable to water shortages and floods. However, assessing impacts of such urban growth on environmental management and protection is extremely complex and very difficult to evaluate. In addition, there is lack of agreement between the policy and decision-making sectors to decide what can be accepted as a sustainable urban development project. There is a need for an efficient method that links ecological and design parameters in an urban environment. In this work, we present an Urban Planning Sustainability Framework (UPSUF) that combines sustainability evaluation, design solutions and planning system process and operation. One of the innovative features of this framework is the spatial representation of the urban development in a Geographical Information System tool to create an operational link between the design solutions and the evaluation metrics. This method integrates the built and the natural environment through the concept of urban ecosystem services and makes the process for sustainable design more accurate and reliable. Additionally, the UPSUF enables a common understanding among urban stakeholders, and has a potential to facilitate collaboration between the public (Local Planning Authorities and communities) and the private (urban planners, developers and designers) sectors. The UPSUF enables a selection and evaluation of sustainable design solutions, taking into account interactions at a systems level. Proposed infrastructure interventions are multifunctional and likely to require less financial resources while maximising urban sustainability.