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Sean Brady
10/06/13
Pup 190

Assignment #2: Sustainability Indicators

1. Sustainability indicators are measures by which a city, region or municipality may gauge its success in
meeting targeted sustainability goals (Pijawka 9). While there is some overlap between sustainability
indicators and urban indicators the major difference between the two is that urban indicators are focused,
largely, on the success with which a city currently meets the needs of its population while sustainability
indicators measure a cities success in meeting the current populations needs while preserving the
capacity to meet the needs of future generations.
2) In 2007, Mayor Bloomberg detailed a plan for the city of New York in which its impact on climate
change would be reduced, its economy strengthened, the quality of life of its population improved and the city
itself would be prepared for the addition of 1 million more residents (PlaNYC:The Plan). In order to track their
progress towards meeting these goals, by the year 2030, they identified 29 sustainability indicators. These
sustainability indicators were to be evaluated regularly and made available to the public at large (PlaNYC:S.I.).
3) Each of the 29 sustainability indicators were grouped by category and directly related to a specific goal.
In the category of Housing and Neighborhoods, with the specific goal to create homes for almost one million
more New Yorkers while making housing and neighborhoods more affordable and sustainable, the following
indicators were included: Increase in New Housing Units from 2007, Total Units of Housing in NYC, Percent
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of Housing Affordable to Median-income NYC Household, Vacancy Rate of Least Expensive Rental
Apartments, Percent of New Units Within a Mile of Transit and Residential Building Energy Use Per Capita
(PlaNYC:S.I.).
The next category was Parks and Public Space and it had the goal of ensuring all New Yorkers live
within a 10-minute walk of a park. The lone metric included in this category was Percent of New Yorkers that
Live within a Mile of a Park (PlaNYC:S.I.).
The category of Brownfield related indicators were tied to the goal of cleaning up all contaminated land
in New York City. The indicators used to measure this were the Number of Vacant Tax Lots Presumed to be
Contaminated and the Number Tax Lots Remediated in NYC Annually (PlaNYC:S.I.).
Waterway related indicators included Fecal Coliform Rates in New York Harbor and Dissolved Oxygen
rates in New York Harbor both of which were tasked to monitor the improvement of local waterways thereby
increasing opportunities for recreational uses and also restoring coastal ecosystems (PlaNYC:S.I.).
A goal for a high quality and reliable water supply was also defined and the indicators which attempted
to measure the progress towards meeting this goal were the Number of Drinking Water Analyses Below
Maximum Contaminant Level and Water Usage per Capita (PlaNYC:S.I.).
In order to measure the cities goal of an expansion of sustainable transportation choices while ensuring
both their reliability and their high quality the following indicators were used: Sustainable Transportation
Mode Share, Change in Transit Volume Minus Change in Auto Traffic Volume, Vehicle Revenue Miles,
Percent of Bridges Meeting a State of Good Repair, Percent of Roads meeting a State of Good Repair and
Percent of Transit Stations Meeting a State of Good Repair (PlaNYC:S.I.).
Reducing energy consumption while increasing the use of cleaner, more reliable, energy systems was
another specified goal and GHG Emissions per Unit of Electrical Power, System Reliability (represented by
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System Average Interruption Frequency Index), and Energy Use per Capita were tasked to monitor the progress
of meeting this goal (PlaNYC:S.I.).
Included in their goals was the achievement of the cleanest air quality of any big U.S. city. They used
the City Ranking in Average PM and the Change in Average PM as indicators for this strategic objective
(PlaNYC:S.I.).
They planned to divert 75% of their solid waste from landfills and measured this diversion with the
indicator Percentage of Waste Diverted from Landfills (PlaNYC:S.I.).
The final category was titled Climate Change and it had the explicit goals of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions by more than 30% while also increasing the resilience, with regards to the effects of climate risks, of
their communities, their natural systems and their infrastructure. Indicators for the progression towards the
completion of these goals include: GHG emissions (MTCO
2
e), Percent GHG emissions (2005 GHG
emissions=100%), GHG emissions per
GCP, and GHG emissions per capita (PlaNYC:S.I.).
Ultimately, these indicators were chosen to measure the specific goals, with which they are linked,
because these data points do have some connection to these goals but they were also chosen because these data
points were either already being generated or could be generated quite easily.
4) Due to the fact that these indicators were chosen from data already being collected the effectiveness of
each indicator varies. For example, the percent of new housing which is affordable to the median household
income does a decent job of measuring the citys ability to meet the housing needs of those near the median
income but is ineffective in measuring the housing needs of the poor. In a second example, the City of New
York cited the goal of improving the quality of the water ways in order to increase recreational use and to
restore coastal ecosystems but its indicators only measured fecal coliform rates and dissolved O
2
rates which are
important but are hardly demonstrative of meeting these goals.
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5) In order to improve the program I would include indicators which more directly measure the degree to
which they are meeting their specified goals. As an example, in examining the quality of their waterways I
would include measures of the biodiversity in the waterways, the presence of invasive species and the levels of
chemical pollutants including heavy metals, phosphates and pH levels. These sort of changes need to be made
across the entire spectrum of their sustainability indicators. By measuring the use of sustainable materials in
new construction along with number of LEED certifications awarded they would be better able to gauge their
success in making housing and neighborhoods more sustainable. Many more glaring examples of this kind
could be examined but would require more space than this assignment provides.
http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/indicators
http://www.minneapolismn.gov/sustainability/indicators/
This is a test!
Date 8/9/2013 8/10/2013 8/11/2013 8/12/2013 8/13/2013 8/14/2013
High
Temperature
112 F 110 F 113 F 114 F 115 F 116 F
Low
Temperature
92 F 98 F 98 F 97 F 94 F 97 F
Dew Point 50 F 52 F 60 F 70 F 64 F 60 F

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Works Cited
Pijawka, K. David and Martin A. Gromulat. Understanding Sustainable
Cities: Concepts, Cases and Solutions. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt
2012. Print.
PlaNYC: The Plan. NYC, ND. Web. 3 Oct. 2013.
PlaNYC: Sustainable Indicators. NYC, ND. Web. 3 Oct. 2013.