Towards a Standardized Framework: Analyzing and Systematizing Urban Sustainability Indicators to Guide Effective City Development

Urban sustainability has become a central theme in contemporary city planning and policy-making, reflecting the growing need to address complex environmental, social, and economic challenges. However, the range of metrics used to measure sustainability often results in fragmentation and inconsistency, limiting their practical application. The present study aims to analyze and systematize the urban sustainability indicators most commonly found in the literature and employed at the international level. The research seeks to develop a comprehensive framework of economic, environmental, and social indicators, providing a more coherent and standardized tool to support informed and effective urban regeneration strategies. In particular, in this work a critical examination of the indicators is carried out, highlighting the inherent limitations, potential distortions, and the standardizability level. To ensure more reliable and transparent measurement tools, the outcome of the analysis is the definition of a structured abacus of key urban sustainability indicators, classified across three main domains (economic, environmental, and social), able to orient the choices processes to promote sustainable cities development. Overall, a total of 85 indicators have been identified (27 economic, 36 environmental, 22 social), of which 47 show a high degree of standardization, 37 a moderate level, and only 1 a low level. The majority of the selected indicators are fully operational at the city scale, strengthening their applicability in supporting local governance and urban transformation processes.