Creative Commons

This dissertation was written as part of the MSc in Environmental Management & Sustainability at the International Hellenic University. Sustainability has initially emerged as a designing perception in the fields of economics and ecological consideration whilst afterwards has also been applied to urban development. Sustainable urban development requires holistic performance and high responsibility towards local and global manners, regarding the three pillars of sustainability. Urban sustainability is considered to be a desirable status of urban conditions that constantly occur over time. Equally to the significance of defining sustainability is the task of defining urban assessment process with its relevant methods and tools. Many assessment methods and tools can be identified from literature, attempting to evaluate urban sustainability. The assessment process of urban sustainability implies the existence of methods and tools to measure performance with respect to pre-established principles, guidelines, factors, or other criteria. The present dissertation presents a thorough review of the sustainable development and urban sustainability. Its primary object is to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing methods and tools that can be applied by cities in a local or global scale, in order redefine their sustainability status, planning their future actions for further development. At this point, I would like to thank Dr Georgios Banias and Dr Charisios Achillas for supporting and supervising the present dissertation, providing insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research. In addition, I would also like to show my gratitude to the International Hellenic University (IHU) and its professors, for sharing their knowledge regarding my Master of Science degree. Finally, I am personally grateful to my family that constantly supported me to successfully complete my master degree. Keywords: Sustainability, Urban Sustainability, Sustainability Assessment, Methods and Tools, Sustainability Indicators Tsairelis Anastasios 12/02/2017