A review of urban design sustainability evaluation tools

The aim of this paper is to identify and compare sustainable urban development (SUD) evaluation tools suitable to use at the urban neighbourhood scale during the design phase of the development process. Twelve tools are selected and analysed in terms of structure, format and content, the latter focusing on how the evaluation indicators address the dimensions of urban form, accessibility and the neighbourhood's spatial context. From this analysis it is possible to identify some general trends. However, the selected tools represent a very diverse set with no common standards, varying in the background principles, the topics addressed and the outputs produced. Furthermore, the tools are largely specific to a specific geographic and institutional context and to a type of project, and for that reason the customisation of indicators and benchmarks is generally encouraged. As a consequence urban design teams have to decide between using whatever tool is already available for the project's specific context or customising the tool that presents the most relevant format and set of principles.