The quality of life in Padova municipality and the ISO 14031 model - an experience to measuring urban sustainability by context indicators and performance indicators

In order to analyse and carry out the sustainability through a decisional process, it is necessary, as a first step, to be able to measure it. International organizations suggest the use of economical, social and environmental indicators, corresponding to the three main dimensions of the sustainable development. Since the issues of urban sustainability are deeply connected to each other, it is clear that a measurement activity in this field can be effective if the set of indicators we use is able to represent this complexity, yielding at the same time a clear and complete informative framework. The study considers instruments and methods that can be used to obtain a measure of sustainability, easily communicable to citizens and other stakeholders and coherently representing the reality, which it is related to. The effectiveness of an index is often indirectly proportional to its simplicity; however this study avoided generalizations, which could compromise the significance of the final results. Starting off from the methodology of environmental performance evaluation (ISO 14031), this work allowed the definition of an index of quality of life. The case study for the research is the Padova municipality (North-East of Italy), and its way to realize a local agenda 21 process.