An overview on Sustainable Street Design Indicators: A path for evaluating street transformation

The STREET research project - Street Transformations, Rebalancing Ecology and Environment issues in urban Territories-explores Street transformation projects in Portugal to understand their contribution in sustainable, climate adaptable and ecological urban environments. The interdisciplinary studies on the three key dimen-sions of street - nature, social and mobility – can clarify in which manner functionality, durability and adaptability is integrated in street design. The research consists of in-depth study on street design and planning compo-nents, with the aim to identify sustainability indicators for the development of an evaluation design/planning tool on sustainable street interventions. The STREET research project is organised in two parts: firstly, a litera-ture review on the various indicators on street design (overview publications 50+) and, in sequence, a study case analyses and mapping of 20 recent street projects in Portugal, highlighting each potential sustainable impact (analyses before/after).This paper focus on the first research part. Since streets are a fundamental component of the public space system, it is assumed that improving existing streets will make a decisive contribution to creating more sustainable urban environments. Within the main challenges of contemporary society and its negative environmental impact, new urban streets interventions play a fundamental role, being essential to rebalance the functioning of public space in urban territories in its social, environmental and mobility components. This communication/paper focus on overview of the strategic approaches, sustainability indicators and measurement topics for street project evaluation. The framework organises various indicators and potential solutions by three key dimensions of street, based on literature review of: scientific articles, design manuals and guidelines, and public space policy/strategic documents. The research main output will be an objective evaluation tool for assessing the impact on sustainable street transformation. In parallel, it offers also a systematic overview of good practices in street transformation, and an interdisciplinary reflection on the applicability, replicability of various approaches and project principles. The presented results provide a comparable over-view of various sustainable design principles,and the potential reinforcement of social and natural values of streets.