Sustainability indicators of planning and urban environmental management applied to the urban metabolism context: procedures of identification, selection, analysis and definition

Urbanization has resulted, for many years, several impacts, not only on the environment, but also on people's lives. Currently, concerns about environmental issues and sustainability have led society to pay more attention to these themes. The use of indicators to assess urban sustainability, quality of urban life, urban environmental quality and urban metabolism is essential for decision-making, and the choice of them must occur carefully for a reliable result. For these reasons, the article aimed to develop and employ procedures for the selection and analysis of indicators, in order to define and propose sustainability indicators for application in the context of planning and environmental management of cities in the conception of urban metabolism (from the perspective of environmental quality and quality of urban life). The research comprised two main methodological steps: the elaboration of the Indicator Analysis Procedure - PAI; and application of the PAI in the selection and proposition of sustainability indicators in the context of environmental planning and management of cities. As a result, the article generated an indicator analysis procedure, containing 10 evaluation criteria, which classify the indicators as high, medium or low ability to use. Two tables were also generated containing the principles of quality of life and urban metabolism, which were used for the application of the PAI in the indicator's selection. The selected and proposed indicators are divided into 17 categories of analysis. The suggested indicators and the procedure (PAI) can be used by managers, public administration agents and will make it possible to subsidize decision-making and the implementation of urban and environmental policies.