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Developing Urban Environment Indicators for Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment in Tripoli-Libya

This content has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text. 2016 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 160 012046 (http://iopscience.iop.org/1757-899X/160/1/012046) View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more Download details: IP Address: 103.31.34.2 This content was downloaded on 06/02/2017 at 02:35 Please note that terms and conditions apply.

International Engineering Research and Innovation Symposium (IRIS) IOP Publishing IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 160 (2016) 012046 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/160/1/012046

Developing Urban Environment Indicators for Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment in Tripoli-Libya Ahmed .A. Elgadi 1, Lokman Hakim Ismail 2, Fatma Abass 3 and Abdelmuniem Ali 4 1-4

Department of Construction Engineering and Architecture, Faculty of Civil and Environmental, Engineering, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia 1e-mail: [email protected], 2 e-mail [email protected], 3 e-mail [email protected], 4 e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Sustainability assessment frameworks are becoming increasingly important to assist in the transition towards a sustainable urban environment. The urban environment is an effective system and requires regular monitoring and evaluation through a set of relevant indicators. The indicator provides information about the state of the environment through the production value of quantity. The indicator creates sustainability assessment requests to be considered on all spatial scales to specify efficient information of urban environment sustainability in Tripoli-Libya. Detailed data is necessary to assess environmental modification in the urban environment on a local scale and ease the transfer of this information to national and global stages. This paper proposes a set of key indicators to monitor urban environmental sustainability developments of Libyan residential neighborhoods. The proposed environmental indicator framework measures the sustainability performance of an urban environment through 13 sub-categories consisting of 21 indicators. This paper also explains the theoretical foundations for the selection of all indicators with reference to previous studies.

Keywords: Urban environment, Sustainability neighborhoods assessment 1. Introduction Environmental sustainability is one of the main constituents of the UN -Habitat and Prosperity City Index [1] as is the case in the 21st century of sustainable urban development. It plays a crucial role in securing the well being of our neighborhoods and communities. External environmental factors of the rapid urbanization and industrialization of sustainability have been hotly debated recently. The concept of sustainability has developed in the early 1970s in response to growing concerns about the effects of development on the state of urban environment practices [2]. Sustainability means “leave the world better than you found it, take no more than you requisite, try not to harm quality life or the environment, make restitution if you do”. The popularity of sustainability has led to the founding of a new type of development called sustainable urban environment. It is a contradictory term is made up of words that have a completely different gloss. Sustainability refers to maintaining a presence and service in the environment, while also providing for human requests. On the other hand, urban environment refers to any

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activity that works to improve the quality of life through the depletion of natural resources and demolition of natural areas [3]. There is a requisite to recognize safe and accurate information to support decisionmaking, policy analysis and formulation of sustainable urban development environment [4]. This information is collected and evaluated by assessing sustainability environmental models. The value of the sustainable urban development indicators with the principles of sustainability and themes along with the increasing knowledge of sustainability are usually based on sustainability assessment models [5]. So far indicators from a number of models have been developed to measure the sustainability performance of urban environments at a local level to develop appropriate environmental treatments [6]. However, there is a lack of sustainable urban environment indicators for assessing Tripoli-Libyan residential neighborhoods [7]. This paper aims to develop urban environment indicators in a TripoliLibyan context. 2. Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Using Indicators Neighborhood sustainability assessments refer to a methodology designed to assist decision-making procedures by identifying, measuring and comparing the environmental influences of a project [8]. The main practices of the sustainability assessment are to provide: (1) input strategic planning and decisionmaking in government and non-governmental institutions; (2) information for examination, evaluation and impact analysis; (3) a source for reporting on international settlements, official environment reporting on specific topics, and (4) a process to add knowledge about sustainable development indicators [9]. There are three categories of a general assessment of sustainability including indices of indicators, integrated assessment and the evaluation of relevant products [10]. These frameworks are connected in time series on the basis of retrospective indicators or indexes and an integrated assessment of product-related assessment. The first category involves of indicators. The indicators are variables, which describe one of the government qualities of the system through the data observed or estimated. The index is a quantitative compilation of many indicators, which provide a coherent, streamlined multi-dimensional system [11]. Indicators are used to monitor trends in sustainability over a long period of time from the standpoint of a retrospective view. The information they provide assist in making predictions in the short term as well as relevant decisions in the future. The second category involves of a combined assessment framework, which achieves a modification in policy or implementation of the project by developing scenarios. Examples of this category are: (1) Using multi-criteria in the comparison between political options selecting the effects of these options, the relative performance and the trade-off analysis to be made [12], (2) Using the analysis for cost-benefit evaluation of public or private investment proposals by balancing the costs of the project against the expected benefits, and (3) impact assessment is a set of frame predictions used to develop the basis for policy-making and approval process for the project. For example typically it is used to assess the environmental impact and strategic environmental examples to evaluate the environmental impacts of development projects or strategic decisions in order to reduce possible external factors [13]. One of them, which is known as the identification of neighborhood sustainability based on indicators is an increasingly useful framework which contributes to the planning process through (1) indicators for national or local sustainability; (2) to make sustainability measurable, and hence can be controlled. (3) Provide feedback on the progress during the implementation phase of sustainable development ecology. (4) Represents the advantages and disadvantages of various development replacements to find cases of success [14]. Urban environment indicators play an important role in achieving sustainable urban environment successfully through the selection of relevant indicators necessary to monitor the implementation of sustainability policies and providing the resolution to achieve desired feedback necessary to achieve sustainable urban development [15]. As good indicator is a measure of one or more ecological factors that reflect overall environment indicators [16]. 2.1. Urban Environmental Indicators

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The urban environmental indicators are “physical, chemical and biological, social and economic measures that best represent the important elements of a complex environmental issue." It reflects environmental changes over a period of time and provides information about the mutual relationship between the environment and human activities by highlighting environmental changes as defined by [17]. It is classified as urban environmental indicators in several different ways. The division of the World Resources Institute indicators into four categories was done based on human interactions and the environment [18]. (1) Indicators source, to measure resource depletion and deprivation of biological systems (i.e., agriculture, forestry and marine resources); (2) indicators sink, to assess the capabilities necessary to absorb the emissions and waste of resources (i.e., climate change, acidification, notation); (3) indicators to support life, to monitor the change in the significance of biodiversity and environment (i.e., endangered species, and private land and oceans), and (4) human impact indicators, to measure the effects of environmental problems to public health and quality of life (i.e., housing, waste, health, natural disasters). The indicators are categorized in three ways: (1) categorization by the use in investigating the environmental problem itself with different groups provisional on environmental indicators or systematic development of the policy. (2) Categorization by topic or subject (i.e., climate change and energy consumption) to resolve certain political issues, and. (3) categorization according to the position in the causal chains such as environmental pressures, environmental position, and community responses [19]. The World Bank [20] also identified three main types of indicators: (1) groups of individual indicators, which include large lists of indicators that cover a wide range of issues to improve the integration of environmental concerns into policies (i.e., OECD indicators), (2) objective indicators, which include a small set of indicators to assess the environmental policy for each of the issues (i.e., world development indicators), and (3) systemic indicators which include one indicator to determine the complex problem (i.e., wealth indicators and real savings). 3. Material And Methods 3.1. Indicators Types The indicators on a developing urban environment were divided into three categories. The first category consists of primary indicators, which contain all the key indicators that assess a key issue. It was selected as the primary indicator of this framework through the two approaches described ("leading citizen" and "led-expert") these preliminary indicators highlight the core issues of Tripoli-Libya and represent the sustainability of neighborhoods that must be assessed. The second category is called secondary indicators, which are also considered as an indicator of assistance. Secondary indicators have low weight and rank compared to the primary indicators. The secondary indicators were selected using the same approach used to determine the initial indicators. Neglecting secondary indicators in the assessment reduces the effectiveness of Libyan neighborhood assessments and should, therefore, be included in the evaluation whenever possible. The third category of indicators is indicators help. The development of this type of indicators aims to assess the issues, which are considered unique cases of its kind. Activate additional indicators such as additional point of order in the context of the weighting system. Additional points will add more value to assess the neighborhood.

3.2. Data Analysis

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In April 2016, a study on the distributions of different stakeholder groups was conducted to identify their views with regards to the relative importance of the neighborhood on the scale and sustainability of the relevant urban environmental indicators in Tripoli-Libya. The total number of the Tripoli population is 2,000,000 based on the information prepared by the Libyan urban planning agency [7]. This crosssectional study collected information from a sample of 250 respondents selected from the Tripoli population in Libya. Cross-sectional surveys can be used to assess the implications of longitudinal observations and must consider the validity of the statistics. The data were collected through a survey and were statistically analyzed to identify the key urban environmental indicators that should be included in the framework to assess the sustainability of Libyan neighborhoods in this study. 4. Result 4.1. Neighborhood Environmental Sustainability Indicators Environmental considerations indicate that environmental protection is a global issue that has taken hold over the past few decades. The United Nations has recommended that humanity must not exceed the carrying capacity of the Earth's natural resources. The protection and conservation of environmental and natural resources have gained in significance due to the energy and water crises. Many countries have implemented policy changes in order to reduce negative effects on the global environment [21]. According to the stakeholder’s responses, environmental considerations are the most important key element of environment sustainability in Libya, with primary urban environment indicators. The environmental considerations element consists of 21 indicators and 13 issues as shown in table 1. Some of these issues and indicators have been accepted or integrated with others due to the responses of stakeholder groups. Table 1. Proposed Libyan Urban Environment Indicators Category

Code

Indicator

Mean

Climate change

CC1 CC2

Carbon dioxide emissions Per capita emissions of greenhouse gases

4.43 3.60

CC3

Air quality Agriculture Costal zone Green spaces Water quality Ecosystem Fisheries Ozone layer depletion Marine

Amount of sustainable or natural vegetative cover surrounding the city and green spaces within it  AQ4 Ambient concentration of air pollutants in urban areas AQ5 Air pollutants in urban areas AQ6 Carbon Dioxide Monitoring & Control A7 Use of agricultural pesticides A8 Fertilizer use efficiency CZ9 Percentage of total population living in coastal areas GS10 Percentage of preserved areas/ reservoirs/waterways / parks in relation to total land area WQ11 Wastewater treatment E12 Management effectiveness of protected areas E13 Fragmentation of habitats F14 Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits OD15 Consumption of ozone depleting substances ME16

Proportion of marine area protected

4

Average

3.98

3.90 4.20 4.70 4.23 4.17 3.30 3.90

4.38 3.74 3.90

4.50

4.50

4.57 4.43 2.90 2.99

4.57

2.89

2.89

4.30

4.34

3.67 2.99


environment Water quantity

ME17 WN18 WN19

Equal access to land and natural resources Urbanisation

ER20

U21

Marine trophic index Proportion of total water resources used Annual withdrawal of ground and surface water as a percentage of total available water Availability of basic needs such as water, and energy per year per capita which are met within the neighborhood

4.37 4.43

3.90

3.90

Area of Urban Formal and Informal Settlements

2.80

2.80

4.60

4.52

4.2. Preliminary Conceptual Framework Libyan neighborhoods were derived based on the relevancy level of each indicator as voted by stakeholders from various industries or organizations. The framework was derived based on the priority as shown in ‘Figure 1’below. In the priority axis, there are three categories namely primary indicator, secondary indicator, and auxiliary indicator. Primary indicator refers to an indicator that scored more than 4, secondary indicator refers to indicator with a score between 3 to 4, while auxiliary indicator shows a score value less than 3 [7]. The environment indicators were identified as one aspect of livability and contribute to the sustainable development of urban areas. For each of the environmental domain (e.g., water quantity, water quality, green space, air quality, marine environment, climate, agriculture, coastal zone, natural resource, fisheries, urbanization and ozone) based on the framework, there are 21 indicators that need to put into neighborhood development in order to achieve a sustainable urban environment. The content in this preliminary conceptual framework of urban environment indicators should consider the welfare of the urban environment results using the lens of sustainable urban development. The identification of both upstream determinants (e.g., neighborhood) and the determinants of downstream attributes (e.g., behaviors) may affect the environment and the well-being outcomes. The associations were used from previous studies to guide the development of the Libyan framework. In contrast, the use of a conceptual framework to determine the spatial environment measures may be associated with specific behavioral, intermediate, and long-term environmental and welfare outcomes.

Primary Environment Indicators

• Water quantity • Water quality • Green spaces • Air quality • Marine environment

Secondary Environment Indicators

• Climate change • Agriculture • Costal zone • Ecosystem • Equal access to land and natural resources

Auxiliary Environment Indicators

• Fisheries • Urbanisation • Ozone layer depletion

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Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of Urban Environment Indicator

5. Conclusion The neighborhood is a black hole of the environment, which depletes natural resources and production outside its borders. Strong urban environment indicators of the conceptual framework can be used to assess the effects of urban development on the environment and influence political decision-making to achieve sustainability. When carefully selected and used in an appropriate manner, they simplify and summarize the enormous flows of information by providing quantitative data. Selection of indicators is often subjective and will help in selecting the best indicator; therefore, the choice of indicators depends on categories such as air pollution and water pollution. They should also be easy to understand, scientifically credible and internationally comparable. The conceptual framework needs indicators that take into account the following basic criteria: (1) the importance of politics and the benefit for users, (2) analytical integrity, and (3) measurement. However, due to lack of data, it is difficult to produce indicators, which meet all these requirements. Many organizations have developed sustainable development indicator frameworks in a wide range of geographical units including neighborhoods, cities, regions, and countries. This paper has proposed a set of Libyan environmental indicators and a conceptual framework which links urban environmental indicators and wellbeing. It also serves as a framework for different stakeholders in establishing sustainable development policies in many ways: (1) helps master planned communities and developers to assess the sustainability of development (2) assists local governments to detect areas of environmental problems in Libyan neighborhoods and use this information to improve the future development of planning and design services, and (3) increases the awareness of individual Libyan neighborhoods on environmental issues. The results can be used to encourage sustainable improvements in their own parcels. Finally, the framework provides a conceptual basis to establish a composite indicator-based model for assessing environmental sustainability, which is shown in Table 1. These 21 indicators have been selected based on literature review and 21 stakeholders in Tripoli-Libya. Therefore, the development of sustainability indicators, require further investigation and more urban environmental indicators need to be developed in order to work with more detailed data in sustainability assessments in Libya.

6. Acknowledgments

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We would like to thanks to the Office for Research, Innovation, Commercialization and Consultancy Management (ORICC) University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia for supporting this research project through GIPS grant. 7. References [1] UN (United Nations). (2013). Official list of millennium development goal indicators. Retrieved on 14.07.13 from http://mdgs.un.org.   [2] Lumley, S. and Armstrong, P., 2004. Some Of The Nineteenth Century Origins Of The Sustainability Concept, Environment Development and Sustainability 6: 367–378. [3] Goonetilleke, A., Yigitcanlar, T., Ayoko, G., & Egodawatta, P. (2014). Sustainable urban water environment: Climate, pollution and adaptation. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. [4] Ismail, L. H. (2007). An evaluation of bioclimatic high-rise office buildings in a tropical climate: energy consumption and users' satisfaction in selected office buildings in Malaysia (Doctoral dissertation, University of Liverpool). [5] Pope J, Annandale, D. and Morrison-Saunders, A.2004. Conceptualising sustainability assessment. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 24:595–616. [6] Akasah, Z. A., & Amirudin, R. (2006, June). Maintenance Management Process Model For cities An Application of Idef Modelling Methodology. In The international conference on construction Industry (pp. 56-64). [7] UPA, 2006. National Spatial Policy 2006-2030: Draft report, Tripoli: Urban Planning Agency. [8] DSE, 2007. Method for Conducting a Sustainability Assessment of Future Management Options for State Forests Supplying Water to Melbourne. Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria. [9] Guijt, I., Moiseev, A., 2001. Resource Kit for Sustainability Assessment. IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources), Gland, Switzerland and cambridge, UK. [10] Tanguay, G., Rajaonson, J., Lefebvre, J. F. and Lanoie, P., 2009. Measuring the sustainability of cities: A survey-based analysis of the use of local indicators. CIRANO. [11] White V., McCrum G., Blackstock K.L. and Scott A., 2006. Indicators And Sustainable Tourism: Literature Review. Aberdeen: The Macaulay Institute. [12] Hirst, P., et al., 2012. Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas. European Investment Bank Retrieved February 17, 2015. [13] Santana-Medina, N., Franco-Maass, S. and Sánchez-Vera, E, Imbernon, J.and Nava- Bernal, G., 2013. Participatory generation of sustainability indicators in a natural protected area of Mexico. Ecological Indicators, 25, 1-9 [14] Ciegis, R., Ramanauskiene, J., Startiene, G., 2009. Theoretical reasoning of the use of indicators and indices for sustainable development assessment. Inzinerine Ekonomika (Engineering Economics) 3, 33–40.    [15] Shen, L.Y., Ochoa, J.J., Shah, M.N., Zhang, X., 2011. The application of urban sustainability indicator comparison between various practices. Habitat Int 35, 17–29. [16] NZOSA, 2014. Criteria for Indicator Selection. New Zealand's Official Statistics Agency Retrieved June 08, 2014, [17] Newton, P., Flood, J., Berry, M., Bhatia, K., Brown, S., Cabelli, A. et al. (1998). Environmental Indicators for National State of the Environment Reporting Human Settlements, Australia: State of the Environment (Environmental Indicator Reports), Department of the Environment, Canberra. [18] OECD (2007), The DAC Guidelines: Strategies for Sustainable Development: Guidance for Development Cooperation. Development Assistance Committee. 2669958.pdf.

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