Liveability Framework: Part 10 – Measuring Urban Liveability

Introduction

Liveability in urban environments is not a static concept. It is a continuously evolving construct that changes with each city’s development phase and is shaped by emerging individual perceptions and aspirations on urban lived experiences, as well as dynamic external forces.  Responding to current and emerging challenges, the Liveability Framework (LF) serves as a practical but non-prescriptive reference for city leaders, policymakers and planners to plan liveable and sustainable cities of the future.

Liveability Framework. Image from the Centre for Liveable Cities

The Role of City Indices in Measuring Urban Liveability

Cities are turning to data-driven approaches to shape policy and enhance liveability, with liveability indices becoming an essential tool to reflect urban liveability and offering quantifiable insights. These indices often serve as scorecards over time that measure aspects from housing affordability to cultural vibrancy, helping cities benchmark their progress and inform policy decisions.

While various indices take different approaches to measuring city liveability, reflecting differing priorities, there is no universal definition of what makes a city "liveable". Some indices focus on conventional measures like leadership stability and infrastructure provision, while others incorporate subjective elements such as social media data and resident perceptions.

These measurement tools, though valuable, have notable limitations. For instance, indices tend to converge on a similar set of metrics or indicators to enable cross-city comparisons. While useful for benchmarking, they may overlook what works in each context. Additionally, the resource-intensive nature of data collection can lead to underrepresentation of cities with limited means to do so.

While global liveability indices provide valuable benchmarking tools, they should be seen to complement rather than replace city-specific metrics that reflect local priorities and contexts. The key challenge is developing measurement approaches that truly reflect what matters to residents, going beyond conventional indicators to measure what matters most to residents.

Emerging Aspects of Liveability and Measuring What Matters

As our views of urban liveability continue to evolve, capturing the complex dimensions of city living needs to become more nuanced to reflect contemporary values and lifestyles. New priorities have emerged, such as holistic wellness, digital connectivity, and work-life balance, particularly as remote work reshapes how people choose and interact with cities.

Notably, there's a shift towards measuring "loveability" - the emotional and psychological connections people form with cities. While conventional metrics like infrastructure provision and safety remain important, cities must now also consider elements that create meaningful places and foster a sense of belonging, such as cultural programming and creative placemaking.

Light to Night Festival transforms Singapore's Civic District into an immersive canvas of light and art annually, reflecting the growing importance of fostering cultural vibrancy and emotional attachment to place. (ScribblingGeek, Wikimedia Commons)

Advances in technology and data capture are also transforming how we measure. Cities can now leverage social media analytics, sensor networks, and smart city technologies to capture previously hard-to-measure aspects of urban living. Digital transformation has enabled more sophisticated measurements of urban patterns. Through smartphones and social media platforms, cities can now access real-time insights into how people interact with their environment at unprecedented scale and detail.

Measuring what matters may also require innovative approaches that go beyond standard measurements. Creative indices like the "Popsicle Index" for neighbourhood safety or the "Latte Index" for cost of living offer relatable ways to assess urban quality of life. More importantly, it also requires tracking both what we deliver and understanding its real impact. This requires a shift towards complementing output measures with measuring outcomes - evaluating how interventions improve community wellbeing, rather than administrative data reflecting outputs such as the number of parks built. This evolution in measurement approaches helps cities better understand and enhance urban liveability, ensuring that development truly serves community needs.

Conclusion

While liveability indices offer valuable benchmarking tools for policy design and public engagement, cities face challenges in adopting standardized measurements that remain sensitive to local development contexts. Enhanced collaboration and data sharing between cities could help develop more comprehensive and meaningful indicators.

Ultimately, liveability indices are valuable benchmarking tools, but rather than absolute measures, they should be viewed as an evolving suite of instruments that help cities chart their own path toward more liveable futures.

The refreshed Liveability Framework now also boosts a dedicated webpage and video for bite-sized takeaways that was launched at the Mayors Forum of the World Cities Summit this year. Explore the website here.

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