The Human City: The Development of an Easy-to-Use Assessment Method Calibrated to Swedish Conditions

Abstract

Sustainability encompasses three dimensions: environmental, economic, and social. Among these dimensions, social sustainability presents the most challenging definition and measurement, leading to its frequent neglect. There is therefore a need to increase the measurability of social sustainability. There are several methods for measuring social sustainability, but we can broadly categorize them into two groups: those that are simple and easy to use, and those that are more comprehensive but more challenging to use. Furthermore, there can be a case for increasing the local adaptation of assessment methods regarding social sustainability. In this study, a new easy-to-use assessment method is developed and calibrated to Swedish conditions. We created a total of 40 questions, evenly distributed across 8 categories: architecture and aesthetics, places to meet, social infrastructure, accessibility, traffic, security, senses and experience, and development. The new method strives to be evidence-based and adapted to Swedish conditions. The study resulted in an easy-to-use assessment method adapted to local conditions that can be suitable for simple evaluations of social sustainability in the design of public places. It can be particularly useful when laymen need to understand where the place’s strengths and weaknesses lie in a social context. Since the method is based on subjective assessments, an interesting future study could investigate whether different people can achieve the same results with the developed assessment method.