Urban Sustainability and SDGs Implementation Between Regional Strategy and Local Practice: Case of Sardinia

Abstract

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a global agenda toward 2030 that need to be implemented at the local level to become effective. This chapter presents the Italian case study and describes how these goals are being integrated into the Sardinian Regional Sustainable Development Strategy (SRSvS). In particular, this chapter illustrates the methodology developed for SDGs localization at the neighborhood level, to support the implementation of the Regional Strategy. The main component of this methodology is an SDG-based evaluation framework for integrated sustainability assessment of urban and territorial transformations. The evaluation framework is designed to become a centerpiece in the institutionalization of sustainability assessment across the public administrations, and to promote sustainability through urban projects and policies. This work raises critical questions about the current practices and suggests how SDGs-oriented urban strategies and projects can offer a comprehensive a common framework of principles and criteria against which different interventions can be assessed and justified. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the potential more general relevance of such an approach, and some suggestions for future research and practice.