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Centre for Liveable Cities Knowledge Hub

Methodology for the Regenerative City Framework

Learn more about the process of developing the Regenerative City Framework.

Last updated 10 June 2026

Expert engagements gathered broad, open-ended insights from stakeholders across diverse sectors and international platforms. The Delphi survey then brought scientific rigour to the process, involving iterative rounds of expert consultation to refine and validate the framework. Together, these findings were triangulated to produce a framework that is both practically applicable across diverse urban conditions and scientifically grounded in expert consensus.

Expert Engagements 

Expert engagements were conducted with more than 100 multi-sectoral stakeholders over a 2-year period. The Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) leveraged international platforms such as the World Cities Summit and the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, consulted expert panels like the World Cities Summit Knowledge Council, and organised forums and workshops, most notably the CLC's Regenerative Cities Forum Series held in Singapore and at London Climate Action Week in 2025. Knowledge partners spanned the public, industry, people and international organisations, and academic sectors (see Table 1).

Table 1: Sectoral Spread of Engaged Stakeholders

Public

Industry

People/International Organisations

Academics

Total

35

40

20

32

127

Delphi Survey

Three rounds of the Delphi survey were conducted online by the Singapore University of Technology and Design, in collaboration with the CLC, from September 2025 to January 2026. Round 1 consisted of unstructured questions, while rounds 2 and 3 employed semi-structured formats combining rating scales and optional qualitative feedback (see Table 2). Each round remained open for approximately three to four weeks and was closed once a minimum response rate of 70% was achieved, which is consistent with recommendations for Delphi studies.

Table 2: Overview of the Three Delphi Survey Rounds

Round 1

To establish an understanding of the regenerative city, the round 1 survey sought experts' inputs on: 

  • A definition  

  • Key principles  

  • Strategies  

  • Enablers  

  • How a regenerative city differs from a sustainable city, and the additional value that the regenerative city might bring to urban development   

Round 2

Building on round 1, experts were asked to: 

  • Share their level of agreement with the draft definition  

  • Rank the importance of the seven identified principles and share their level of agreement  

  • Rank the importance of identified strategies and enablers  

  • Provide any additional comments or revisions

Round 3

Validating findings from round 2, experts were asked to: 

  • Re-evaluate the definition, principles, strategies, and enablers using the same scales as round 2 

  • Select the top five strategies and top five enablers to identify priorities for implementation 

  • Provide any additional qualitative comments 

Participants were selected based on their expertise in urban sustainability, regenerative design, urban regeneration and related fields, with evidence of expertise assessed through indicators such as publication record, leadership positions or involvement in major projects characterised by regenerative features.  

Among 143 invited global experts, 43 agreed to participate, falling within the recommended Delphi panel size of 10 to 50. 

The process identified a definition for the regenerative city that received 91% agreement in the final round. Alongside this, 8 core principles, 21 strategies and 17 enabling conditions met the consensus criteria, indicating strong collective alignment around a broad set of actions and conditions.

Data Triangulation  

The Regenerative City Framework was produced from a triangulation of findings from both the expert engagements and Delphi survey. Pertinently, data triangulation was used to find patterns across expert domains around the central question: How can the Framework support city leaders and practitioners in applying the regenerative approach? These findings culminated in the three outcomes, three strategies and seven enablers of the Regenerative City Framework.