Abstract

The concept of sustainability emphasizes a shift in values, balancing competing technological and economic progress needs, and protecting the environment. To combat urbanization issues and promote sustainable development, sustainable cities have become an area of interest in research, education, policy-making, and businesses. There have been several frameworks directly measuring sustainability by international and national agencies. Additionally, related concepts, such as resilience and healthy cities, overlap with sustainability indicators. This paper argues that the success and failure of indicators in a context ridden by data unavailability and capacity challenges heavily depend on the process of formulation of indicators. Current Frameworks focus more on the outcomes and less on the process like identification and selection of indicators, consultation mechanisms and implementation and feedback process. Drawing from the example of sustainability indicators framed by NITI Aayog in India, the Urban Sustainability Assessment Framework of UN-Habitat, and the experience of the Smart Cities Mission launched in 2015, this paper highlights the challenges of measurement and applicability of these frameworks in an Indian context. Based on comparative analysis this paper reviews the stated processes as identified in these frameworks. It suggests a process oriented approach to identify explicit mechanism for deliberation and dialogue around value based choices, local level consultations and coordinated data management system.