Measuring incoordination-adjusted sustainability performance during the urbanization process: Spatial-dimensional perspectives

Abstract

Urbanization sustainability is intrinsically against incoordination in two distinct forms: incoordination across sustainability dimensions and geographical spaces in sustainability performance. However, the rapid urbanization, particularly in those developing countries such as China, has been bringing along the problems of dimensional incoordination and spatial incoordination. To date, existing studies do not address these two forms of incoordination while assessing the sustainable urbanization. This paper therefore introduces a measurement model to evaluate the incoordination-adjusted sustainability performance during the urbanization process. The proposed model is established based on the examinations of the weak-strong sustainability perspective and the principle of spatial justice theory. The Atkinson Measure is employed to develop the model. A case study of the Chongqing city is conducted to illustrate the process of applying the proposed model. The outcomes from the case study reveal that the model proposed is effective in gauging and monitoring the status and trajectories of sustainability incoordination during the urbanization process.