The
study proposes to
operationalise sustainable
development
within an urban
environment and at a variety of scales
-
strategic
to neighbourhood.
The
study examines the convergence of
ideas
within urbanity and sustainability,
identifying inconsistencies
and contradictions within current thematic
research.
It
proposes a consensual approach
to understanding the linked
substantive,
analytical and procedural attributes underlying a
developing chronology of
concepts relating to sustainability.
This chronology of
ideas
provides the basis
for
a systems-based
framework that recognises the complexity of urban areas.
The
study advocates and
introduces
an adaptive
framework of spatial
indicators
of urbanism to simplify and communicate an
holistic
overview of attributes of
sustainability.
This interpretation
of
holism is based
on thematic (qualitative /
quantitative) and scalar
(strategic / local) based integration
on a consistent
(spatial) basis. This
adaptive
framework is designed to be
suitable
for locality
specific subjective
interpretations
of sustainability.
It is linked to
a non-expert
methodological 'toolkit' that places an emphasis on currently undervalued
qualitative and spatial
data
collection methods.
This is
a mixed and multi-
method approach to understanding spatial
(urban) systems that complements
empirical
data
sets.
A
series of case studies are used to test and refine qualitative collection
from
primary and secondary sources and spatialisation methods.
Sample
material
is
then used
to test the utility and ease of use of
GIS for data
manipulation,
analysis and modelling. Two detailed
and complementary applications of the
adaptive
framework, the data inventory /
collection methods and the use of GIS
based digital
spatial
databases
are used
to illustrate the potential range of
applications and
highlight
problems of use.
A
number of possible
future developments
of
the study are suggested
for
maximising the utility of the conceptual approach and a
developed
spatial
database for
a variety of agents, exploring additional
dimensions
of the urban
system