Comprehensive Assessment Method for Sustainable Urban Development (CAMSUD) - A New Multi-Criteria System for Planning, Evaluation and Decision-Making

This paper reports on the newly developed multi-criteria urban sustainability system CAMSUD (version 1.0) including the theoretical and analytical process underlying its development. CAMSUD stands for Comprehensive Assessment Method for Sustainable Urban Development. First, an extensive comparative analysis of five well-known urban rating systems is reported: CASBEE-UD, LEED-ND, BREEAM Communities, DGNB-NSQ and Green Star Communities. These rating systems are selected based on their widespread use, their numerous parallels in content, but also contrasting features, which give clear evidence on consensual and non-consensual items related to sustainability understanding and implementation. The analysis items revolved around their development drive, conceptualization, domain of applicability, technical content, practicality, measurability, and certification. Hence, this comparison identified the convergences and divergences of these systems and their potential for further optimization in view of highlighted strengths and weaknesses. Based on that analysis, the second part of the paper depicts the first version (1.0) of CAMSUD, including: 1. the prevailing key concepts in its development as well as its 40 compliance criteria structured in 8 thematic categories; 2. the logic chain of criteria interactions and their effects on an appropriate measuring and scoring. 3. the linkage between CAMSUD and the German sustainability-related legislation (laws, acts, standards and guidelines) as proof of compliance, and 4. the comparative analysis of a database consisting of 160 sustainable urban projects using CAMSUD 1.0 in order 1) to illustrate the handling of urban sustainability in practice and 2) to demonstrate its practical usability and to assess the current version for possible optimization. The motivation for and the outcome of CAMSUD is also to serve as a theoretical basis for a computational decision-making tool to be developed (ECAMSUD), which peculiarity is to manage topic, scale and time related criteria interactions responsible in probable redundancy or failure in scoring. By this means, CAMSUD strives to offer an alternative for a transparent and traceable framework for self-critical analysis and compromise finding when handling complex and cross-disciplinary urban development processes.