- Sustainable Cities: The Case of Greater Port of Spain    453 kb by    Beard, Tracey & Claire, Amanda | tracey.beard@live.com    Short Outline The extent to which the city of Port of Spain, Trinidad is unsustainable may be quantified by using sustainability indices. Such analysis is useful in proposing recommendations that will aid planning for sustainability in the future. Abstract Port of Spain, the capital city of the twin island State of Trinidad and Tobago is plagued by a number of problems which render it unsustainable. These include frequent and severe flooding, traffic congestion and issues related to housing, waste disposal and collection and the informal sector. Case studies have proven that cities which have faced similar problems have now been able to successfully emerge as leading cities in sustainability. Curitiba, the capital of Parana state in south-eastern Brazil, stands out as one such city. It is important that the development of Port of Spain takes place in a sustainable manner, as the literature suggests that cities have tremendous potential for contributing to overall sustainable development. Also, in the context of the challenges faced by Small Island Developing States, issues such as limited land space and climate change are real for the city of Port of Spain. In light of the foregoing, this research seeks to accomplish four things: (i) to identify appropriate indicators for quantifying Port of Spain’s unsustainable attributes (ii) to identify appropriate targets by which progress over time could be measured (iii) to recommend practical ways in which the targets identified could be met and (iv) to recommend how the use of indicators could be incorporated into the city’s planning framework. In order to achieve these objectives, a comprehensive review of global sustainability indicators was undertaken along with a review of best practices from leading cities in sustainability. Keywords Port of Spain, sustainable cities, sustainable development indicators Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2012: Fast Forward: Planning in a (hyper) dynamic urban context   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper