Review of urban sustainability indicators assessment – Case study between Asian countries

•Malaysia has integrated the indicators into the government policy.•China has implemented and incorporated indicators' assessment into their policy.•China has seeks out new growth models to strengthen the urban capacity.•Taiwan indicators serve dual functions of policy evaluation and guidance for decision-making processes.

This paper examines and compares the processes, methodologies and resulting sets of indicators for urban sustainability carried out in three of Asia's developing countries; Malaysia, Taiwan and China. The paper analytically discusses the challenges of developing urban sustainability indicators among the developing countries. The comparison reveals the urban indicators development's processes, contents and outcomes and whether the resulting set of urban indicators is operational and has changed the way things were.