A new strategic direction for greening our cities and making them smart to reduce the environmental impact of their performance, increase employment and economic viability and to enhance the quality of life requires a thorough assessment of sustainability and smart urban performance. The research presented in this paper is based on data on 143 global cities including London, New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, Beijing, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo. Exploring linkages between different sustainability and smart city dimensions, this study applied a multi-criteria approach using a panel of 20 indicators to assess urban sustainability performance of global cities. The assessment focused on the drivers of CO2 emissions in cities, including important aspects of energy transitions, the share of coal in the energy mix and renewable energy, public transport, cycling patterns and pedestrianization, waste recycling as well as carbon tax. The results show that San Francisco leads in economic and environmental priorities, and Stockholm leads insocial and smart city priorities. Seoul consistently performs very successfully across the whole spectrum of indicators. We devote considerable attention to the strategies, policies and performance of the leading cities, namely, San Francisco, Stockholm and Seoul. This assessment could be a valuable tool for policy-makers and investors, and could help identify linkages between different sustainability dimensions, as well as sustainable development potential and investment opportunities in cities.
A dynamic analysis of social capital-building of international and UK students
