IN-PERSON: Livable Cities – New York

Abstract

In recent years, multiple city indices are gaining recognition in the assessment and the understanding of urban sustainability, urban economics and quality of life. These are often used as tools for ranking, benchmarking and promoting the attractiveness of cities by their administrations, various international organisations and institutes. The majority of such indices are formulated to assess first-tier cities. Second-tier cities will share a substantial load of this urban expansion, yet little research has existed on them. The study aims to develop an urban quality framework that will inform the future development of second-tier cities equitably – socially, environmentally and economically. It seeks to use the indicators set for first-tier cities and sensitise them to second-tier cities by carefully integrating decision sciences and stakeholder involvement. Using mixed-methods research to combine qualitative and quantitative methods, this research provides a contextualised urban quality framework for second-tier cities in Switzerland. The study formulates a value system from indicators at the qualitative level by creating a decision matrix and analysing them using stakeholders’ inputs. Quantitatively, it tests the urban quality framework’s sensitivity by applying it to a few second-tier Swiss cities. To understand the scale of applicability, interdependencies and correlation of various indicators, the mapping will be done at three scales: neighbourhood, core-city (political boundary) and agglomeration, which will further inform the planning policies and design guidelines for urban development of second-tier cities. The framework will provide a range of applications for architects, urban designers, planners, real estate developers, and planning authorities.