This paper aims to offer a profound analysis of the interrelations between smart city components connecting the cornerstones of the triple helix. The triple helix model has emerged as a reference framework for the analysis of knowledge-based innovation systems, and relates the multiple and reciprocal relationships between the three main agencies in the process of knowledge creation and capitalization: university, industry and government. This analysis of the triple helix will be augmented using the Analytic Network Process to model, cluster and begin measuring the performance of smart cities. The model obtained allows interactions and feedbacks within and between clusters, providing a process to derive ratio scales priorities from elements. This offers a more truthful and realistic representation for supporting policy-making. The application of this model is still to be developed, but a full list of indicators, available at urban level, has been identified and selected from literature review.

Campus greening is often the first step universities take towards sustainability. However, the diffusion of sustainability reporting methodologies and rankings is still at an early stage, and is biased in mainly measuring energy efficiency indicators while omitting basic features enabling meaningful comparisons among centers or addressing social (users) aspects related to long term sustainability transitions. This paper aims to introduce a critical perspective on sustainability university frameworks through: (i) a review of current Campus Sustainability Assessments (CSAs); (ii) performing and comparing the results obtained from the application of two internationally recognized CSAs (namely, Green Metric and ISCN) to two case studies (the Politecnico di Torino, in Italy, and the Hokkaido University, In Japan) and, finally, (iii) proposing a new CSA approach that encompasses clusters of homogeneous campus typologies for meaningful comparisons and university rankings. The proposed clusters regard universities’ morphological structures (campuses nested within city centers versus outside of a city compact ones), climatic zones and functions. At the micro scale, the paper introduces the need for indicators beyond measuring pure energy efficiency, but which are attentive to local and societal constraints and provide long-term tracking of outcomes. This, better than a sheer record of sustainability priority actions, can help in building homogenous university case studies to find similar and scalable success strategies and practices, and also in self-monitoring progress toward achieving truly sustainable university campuses.

Scientific research has been acknowledged to play a pivotal role in achieving the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. Vice-versa, since its adoption, the 2030 Agenda has been reinvigorating the academic production on sustainable development. This study provides a systematic literature review of the most used and newly developed approaches by academic research to support the achievement of the SDGs in the EU. The results are presented by descriptive, bibliometric, and content analysis. The descriptive analysis highlights a rising interest of scholars in operationalizing the 2030 Agenda, with a growing interest at the urban level. A text-mining tool was employed to scan the most investigated SDGs in the selected papers. Major interest by scholars is devoted to environmental concerns (especially linked to SDG 13, 7, 6, 12, and 15), while social issues (e.g., SDG 4, 5, and 10) still deserve more research. The bibliometric analysis unveiled poor intra-cluster connections, highlighting the need for more transdisciplinary research. The most recurrent research fields on the SDGs in the EU are governance, circular economy, ecosystem services, urban localization, and decision making. We advise future studies to focus on gaps highlighted and adopt a system perspective, boosting Policy Coherence across governance levels and scales of implementation by looking at trade-offs and assessing context-specific priorities.

The concepts and visions of sustainable development that have emerged in the post-Brundtland era are explored in terms laying the foundations for a common vision of sustainable urban development (SUD). The described vision and methodology for SUD resulted from the activities of an international network called BEQUEST, funded by the European Commission. The project involved building consensus over the language and vision of SUD across a wide range of stakeholders in the urban environment and across a range of spatial and temporal scales, development activities and environmental and social issues. The resulting vision of SUD is that of a relative, adaptive process in which the current urban fabric is gradually adapted over time to suit more sustainable lifestyles. A framework for structuring information on SUD has been developed which provides a unique, integrated representation of the scope and extent of the subject that links together socio-economic and technical dimensions as well as planning, property, design and construction interests, in time and space. Impediments to implementation of the vision and method are explored, including lack of demand, lack of capacity, absence of agreed targets and indicators together with other policy problems undermining full sustainability assessment and evaluation of urban re/development proposals. Cet article analyse les concepts et les perspectives du développement viable qui ont vu le jour dans l'ère post Brundtland en des termes qui posent les fondations d'une vision commune du développement urbain viable (DUV). Les perspectives et la méthodologie en matière de DUV sont nées des activités d'un réseau international dénommé BEQUEST et financé par la Commission européenne. Ce projet prévoyait de dégager un consensus sur le langage et la vision du DUV au sein d'une vaste population d'intervenants dans l'environnement urbain en prenant en compte une diversité d'échelles spatio-temporelles, d'activités de développement et de problèmes d'environnement et de société. La vision du DUV qui en résulte est celle d'un procédé relatif et souple dans lequel le tissu urbain actuel s'adapte progressivement avec le temps à des styles de vie plus viables. Un cadre permettant d'organiser l'information sur le DUV a été développé; il constitue une représentation unique et intégrée du domaine et de l'importance du sujet qui unit les dimensions socio-économiques et techniques ainsi que le planning, la propriété, la conception et les intérêts de la construction, dans l'espace et le temps. L'article poursuit en traitant des obstacles à la mise en oeuvre de la vision et de la méthode, y compris les manques de demande et de capacité, l'absence d'indicateurs et d'objectifs convenus ainsi que d'autres problèmes de politique qui sapent la pleine évaluation de la viabilité et l'évaluation des propositions de développement et de redéveloppement urbain.