Proposed framework for sustainability screening of urban transport projects in developing countries: A case study of Accra, Ghana

This paper documents a framework suggested for screening urban transport projects in developing countries to reflect local issues relevant to sustainability. The framework is based on the integration of indigenous and scientific knowledge to reflect the sustainability of candidate projects. This is achieved through a participatory approach to integrate inputs from system users and providers to produce a term defined as the Localized Sustainability Score (LSS). The LSS of the projects are then used to produce a relative ranking of potential projects, for use as a decision support for project screening and selection. Proof-of-concept development of the proposed LSS framework is presented via a preliminary case study in Accra–Ghana and the results indicate that the framework adequately represented local sustainable transport needs, priorities and perceptions. The LSS determined for some selected projects maintained the original relative rankings that were already derived using conventional methods. The LSS also has the added advantage of evaluating projects of different scales, which were not easy to evaluate together by conventional methods.

► A framework is proposed for ranking and screening urban transport projects in developing countries.
► It is a participatory approach based on the integration of indigenous and scientific knowledge.
► The proposed method is applied to a case study in Accra, Ghana.
► The framework performed well when compared to project rankings from previous studies.