Toward sustainable communities : a planning framework for municipal and local governments
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Some municipal and local governments are expanding their role in sustainable development, but little is known about the nature and extent of these initiatives. This study develops an urban-relevant understanding of sustainable development, then explores the role of North American human settlements in achieving sustainable development and the community-level planning implications of that role. It proposes a framework for sustainable community development, then identifies and evaluates the current range of relevant municipal and local government initiatives. The study data consist of case studies and examples of specific municipal and local government initiatives. Data sources were libraries, computerized databases, and networking. Hundreds of references and initiatives were identified, documented and reviewed. The focus of the data search was on the range of initiatives being practiced or proposed by municipal and local governments. The study develops the argument that sustainable communities require unprecedented and simultaneous emphasis on the efficient use of urban space (e.g., intensifying urban land use, increasing infrastructural efficiency); on reducing consumption of material and energy resources (e.g., generally minimizing the consumption of essential natural capital, encouraging regional self-reliance); on improving community livability (e.g., community development, healthy communities); and on organizing administrative and planning processes which can deal effectively, sensitively and comprehensively with the attendant socioeconomic complexities. The initiatives are categorized according to these criteria. Efficient Use of Urban Space includes transportation planning and traffic management, and land use and growth management. Reducing Resource Consumption encompasses atmospheric change and air quality, energy conservation and efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, and water and sewage. Improving Community Livability includes initiatives to green the city, develop a sustainable economy, and enhance both local community livability and global community responsibility. Administration for Sustainability encompasses investment and purchasing, leadership by example, environmental administration, and extending beyond municipal and local government. The study concludes that the elements for moving toward sustainable communities are being put in place but not, as yet, the necessary synthesis. The criteria of efficient use of urban space, reducing resource consumption, improving community livability, and administration for sustainability are necessary conditions for sustainable community development.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.030 | 0.013 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.006 | 0.010 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.013 | 0.019 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.027 | 0.019 |
| Open science | 0.006 | 0.016 |
| Research integrity | 0.006 | 0.006 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.006 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".