Abstract
The paper concerns the development of sustainability profiles for districts in Copenhagen. This work is currently being carried out by the Danish Building Research Institute, the Technical University of Copenhagen, and the municipality of Copenhagen. The aim of the project is to develop a first model for sustainability profiles for districts in Copenhagen that includes environmental, social and environmental indicators. The work is strongly inspired by the Dutch model 'DPL' (Dutch acronym for Duurzaamheid Prestatie voor een Locatie, ‘Sustainability-Profile for Districts'), which has been quite successful in the Netherlands. The developer of DPL, IVAM Environmental Research, is consultant for the project.
The concept of DPL is that the tool ".. assesses in a clear and transparent way the spatial plan for a district on sustainability, based on the information from the urban plan. It so helps urban designers to creatively improve the sustainable performance of a district" (Kortman et al, 2001). Compared to other tools for assessing urban sustainability, DPL represents a simple and flexible approach. The idea is to use a limited number of indicators based on already collected data. Once the data-collection has been completed, it is easy to repeat it, hence enabling a continuous monitoring of the district. The flexibility of DPL is that it accepts the use of alternative data if the requested data are not available, and also allows new indicators to be included, if they are of special interest of the municipality. This allows a DPL-assessment to be carried out rather smoothly, and thus increase the use amongst municipalities. The DPL-assessment does not provide any 'scientific' correctness, but must be seen as a model open for interpretations and discussions of the local sustainability.
Applying the model on urban districts in Copenhagen has implied some changes of indicators. This has, however, also enabled an elaboration of profiles for all 10 districts in Copenhagen, an instant benchmarking between the districts, and comparative analysis of the indicators.
The paper will discuss and argue for the choice of model in relation to general experiences on using tools for assessment of urban sustainability, and describe the chosen indicators. The experiences and results derived from the profiles so far will be discussed, as well as strengths, weaknesses and possible improvements of the model. Finally, potential uses of the tool will be considered in relation to ongoing projects and planning initiatives in Copenhagen.
| Original language | English |
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| Publication date | 2009 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |
| Event | Sustainable Cities and Regions: Enabling Vision or Empty Talk?', Örebro University, Sweden, March 11-13 2009. - Örebro, Sweden Duration: 11 Mar 2009 → 13 Mar 2009 |
Conference
| Conference | Sustainable Cities and Regions: Enabling Vision or Empty Talk?', Örebro University, Sweden, March 11-13 2009. |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Sweden |
| City | Örebro |
| Period | 11/03/2009 → 13/03/2009 |
Keywords
- Sustainability profile
- Urban districts
- Tool
- DPL
- Data
- Sustainability assessment