Sustainability assessments of peri-urban areas: an evaluation model for the territorialization of the Sustainable Development Goals

This research tests a sustainability assessment based on the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a process of their territorialization and implementation. This process enables the development of a spatial decision support system (SDSS) that can be integrated with strategic environmental assessments in urban planning. The assessment takes place on the transversality of the sustainability concept, considering the three dimensions (environmental, social, and economic) in a single assessment through the spatial sustainability assessment model (SSAM) by integrating geographic information systems (GIS) and multicriteria analyses. Economic development, social equity, and ecological integrity represent the three common visions for rethinking peri-urban edges. The choice of key indicators is due to the possibilities for action of urban plans and the vision of SDG 11a, which aims to support ‘positive economic, social, and environmental links among urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning’. In addition, they were selected to be representative of sustainable planning processes in the peri-urban area. In recognizing the limits of urban expansion processes, in the peri-urban area, it is necessary to promote a different growth based on agri-environmental values, the production of biodiversity reserves and corridors, new models of inhabiting open space, and the consolidation of civic and collective uses. The paper tests the assessment methodology in two urban plans of the Metropolitan City of Naples that address the development of the peri-urban area with different strategies. This provides insight into how to support decision-making processes so that economic development, social equity, and ecological integrity represent three common and integrated visions to enable development that is consistent with SDGs. The results show that it is possible to identify trade-offs among the three dimensions. In fact, where there are environmental subtractions necessary to accommodate peri-urban land-relation functions, these are offset by the social values of collective use and by the values of the current economy that aim to redistribute present resources.