Consensus indicators of sustainability for urban infrastructure

This paper is concerned mainly on the integration of different points of view, and bridging the gap between urban infrastructure stakeholders and citizens. First, we defined a large set of indicators of sustainability for urban infrastructure (energy, transport, waste disposal, water resources and wastewater treatment). Due to the complex nature of the sustainability paradigm, we take into consideration two issues, the need to prioritize indicators in order to take better more coherent decisions, and the importance of the feedback mechanism, as an adaptive element that redefines priorities as policies and social engagement takes place. To evaluate both issues, we show four different scenarios, each based on the relative importance given to each key dimension of sustainability: social, economical, environmental and institutional. This approach, we believe is of utmost importance in the determination of public policies, since it is through feedback that law and regulations can better adapt to the circumstances at hand.