Development of a tool to enhance street cleaning service efficiency: The case study of Porto city, Portugal

Urban cleanliness plays a crucial role in public health, environmental quality and citizens well-being, also affecting cities resilience. However, assessing street cleaning performance objectively, to improve services and citizen's health, remains a challenge. The present study was devoted to create a robust methodology to determine urban cleaning performance with Porto Municipality as reference. Streets were analysed before the cleaning operations and the disposed waste was characterised by typology and size as well as by the zone where it's found. The study considered 11 waste categories and 9 city areas together with developed indicators. Waste quantification was conducted in 52 streets, with 783 samples and 116,780 m² monitored. Commercial/touristic and riverside areas were the cleanest, with cleanliness levels of 85% and 86%, respectively. Residential areas were the less clean, with cleanliness levels of 47% (social housing) and 54% (multi-family buildings), respectively. In residential and school areas, animal droppings were the most found category, corresponding to the highest annoyance level for the population, greatly affecting the streets' cleanliness index. For Porto city, the cleanliness level obtained was 61%. According to the results obtained from 3,269 people surveyed, the cleaning status of Porto city has a score of 3.37 out of 5. Since the survey was conducted in the 'lowest level of cleaning', the results may be classified as good. The findings highlight the need for targeted cleaning strategies in lower-performing areas and demonstrate applicability for systematic urban cleanliness assessment. Future adaptations and optimisations could enable its use in broader contexts, supporting data-driven policymaking and improved urban management.