Comparative analysis of ten Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools offering integrated criteria for urban development

Aligned with the recent trend of climate change mitigation and adaptation to rapid urbanization, sustainable urban development is crucial for creating resilient communities. Various international green building councils have developed Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools that played an effective role in the urban growth of neighborhoods. However, there is no current NSA tool that includes all the categories required to achieve sustainability. Therefore, ten NSA tools were selected, analyzed, and compared. For an applicable comparative analysis, re-categorization and unifying processes of the selected NSA tools were performed. As a result, new integrated criteria were developed including seven main categories offering a valuable resource for evaluating neighborhood sustainability. The results also revealed that WELL Community V2 Q4, Fitwel CM V2.1, and BREEAM-CM V2012 tools demonstrate the highest efficiency by possessing six out of the seven integrated categories. The other NSA tools need to be improved with regard to the dimensions of sustainability. Furthermore, it was noted that all the selected NSA tools give major attention to the environmental conditions and facilities; however, other aspects such as the social, economic, and institutional features are being ignored. To sum up, the study proposes a novel approach that addresses these shortcomings by providing a more comprehensive framework that aims to support policy development and improve the effectiveness of neighborhood sustainability assessments.