Challenges in assessing urban sustainability

Abstract Achieving urban sustainability has been one of the main goals in European Union policies since 1991, when an expert committee was created for that objective. Several research calls concerning it were arranged during the fifth, sixth and even seventh Framework Programmes. The results stated that indicators of urban sustainability were the most effective way of assessing urban sustainability and for establishing a set of goals of sustainability. Many research projects aimed at obtaining a valid list of indicators of urban sustainability. However, after years of research, there is still no set of indicators for planning or assessing urban sustainability, and the topic has been omitted from EU policies. This chapter investigates the various challenges in assessing urban sustainability and proposes how to evaluate urban sustainability in the future.