Sustainable urban development: Use of the environmental assessment methods

The need to protect the environment from the wanton ecological destruction of unfettered economic growth and conspicuous consumption is unquestionable. What is still in question, however, is how environmental assessment methods can be used as a means to evaluate the sustainability of urban development. For while the number of environmental assessment methods available to evaluate the sustainability of urban development has increased notably over the past decade, questions still remain as to the integrative and multi-scalar nature of their evaluations. At their most basic these controversies boil down to the question: is the logic of building assessment integrative and can the method(ology) it uses be scaled-up so as to 'up-the-ante' and offer city-wide evaluations of sustainable urban development? This paper reports on the work the BEQUEST network has undertaken to develop such an integrative and multi-scalar assessment methodology and sets out the types of assessment methods it is possible to use in 'upping-the-ante' and providing such city-wide evaluations.