Pathways to Urban Sustainability A Focus on the Houston Metropolitan Region: Summary of a Workshop (2012) / Chapter Skim
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5 MEASURING SUCCESS AND TRANSLATING RESULTS
5 MEASURING SUCCESS AND TRANSLATING RESULTS
Pages 39-50
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From page 39... ...
They started with 1,000 indicators and then developed a winnowing process to identify 25 indicators which were discussed in detail in a report issued in 2011.10 The project aimed to identify indicators that were quantifiable and to use GIS imagery to identify spatial patterns within the city. The spatial patterns, noted Mr.
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From page 40... ...
One indicator demonstrating that basic needs are not being met for some of Houston's population is the number of individuals living below the poverty level; twenty percent of Houston's population is below the poverty level. Some neighborhoods in Houston, added Mr.
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From page 41... ...
Economics is generally discussed in the context of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services that meet the needs of today. Sometimes economic indicators are not entirely informative; hurricane damage, for example, is taken into account as positive GDP because of the economic activity associated with rebuilding, rather than being negative, which would account for the damage inflicted on communities.
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From page 42... ...
S s Such learning allows comm munities to rec cover, build more sustainability into their sys s stems, and redduce the poten ntial for loss and failures with fuuture disasters The recover process is a window of s. ry opporttunity in whic communiti can enhance their mitig ch ies gation status and the robustness o their system in order to reduce expo of ms o osure and riskk,
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From page 43... ...
R D Recovery can also be sustai inable when eecological, enviro onmental, and social sustain d nability are al increased d ll during the processs. FIGUR 5-3 Map of food deserts i the Houston metropolitan r RE f in region where triangle indicate grocery stores, and lighter to dar es rker shades ind dicate median househhold income fro lower to hig om gher dollar figu ures.
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From page 44... ...
The framework tries to capture the social, economic, physical, and human capital needed to carry out given activities under each phase, as shown for hazard mitigation in Figure 5-5. The unit of analysis used for the framework is at the county level, and data sources include national agencies, such as the Census Bureau, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
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From page 45... ...
Physical capital captured components such as nursing homes, hospitals, landscape firms, housing units, and fire stations, among others. Human capital targeted technical expertise and communities, including zoning regulations, building code, FEMAimproved mitigation plans, environmental consulting workers, building inspectors, and construction workers.
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From page 46... ...
. In general, counties with comprehensive planning, that adopt hazard-relevant building codes and zoning regulations, participate in FEMA CRS rating, and implement other similar policies, were more disaster resilient.
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From page 47... ...
Bruce Wilcoxon, HSE/SD lead for Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Exploration, ConocoPhillips, and a member of their corporate sustainable development group, provided a private sector perspective on measuring sustainable development performance in the context of a large, multicultural urban setting. A number of key points were highlighted.
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From page 48... ...
Additionally, ConocoPhillips developed a variety of planning processes to assist in directing business efforts and in measuring performance. For example, in 2008, the company adopted a five-year climate change action plan.
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From page 49... ...
He noted that overall there has been increasing substance to the statements made on the sites and that increasingly there are more quantitative metrics reported, such as water and energy balances. There is a strong movement in which more companies are internalizing sustainability principles and practices so that much progress has been made across the corporate sector, he said.
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From page 50... ...
50 PATHWAYS TO URBAN SUSTAINABILITY-HOUSTON on the basis of production, and when presented with an energy efficiency project versus a project that includes drilling a natural gas well, the manager has more incentive to move forward with the well in order to demonstrate performance in production. This is a challenge that should be addressed so that energy efficiency projects are not disincentivized, said Mr.
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