Abstract

From the sustainable development management model, cities must seek balance relationships between natural resources and economic and social development in such a way that the environmental conditions inside and outside these urban spaces do not reach undesirable patterns and conditions. This study arises from the need to possess a system for monitoring the socio-environmental sustainability of cities through criteria and indicators. With the participation of national experts, a preliminary list of 327 indicators was generated which were then grouped based on their characteristics into 82 indicators distributed along 9 distinctive criteria, namely: water, energy, fauna, urban green areas, soil, environmental management, solid and liquid waste management, land use planning and society & governance. By means of bibliographic review, only 43 indicators were found to hold complete and operative information to be evaluated. Through a participative workshop involving the national experts, the theoretical feasibility of applying the selected indicators was evaluated. The final result is a compendium of 19 socio-environmental indicators, which comply with at least 80% pertinence, relevance, robustness and data availability. However, the experts point out that cost, scale and quality are all variables that must be used in selecting, adapting or creating indicators that allow for the monitoring of socio-environmental sustainability in Costa Rican cities.

Keywords: Socio-environmental indicators; Ecological sustainability; Costa Rican cities.