# Sustainability Assessment on an Urban Scale: Context, Challenges, and Most Relevant Indicators
## 3 Results and Discussion Regarding the Selected Indicators within the Potential Categories
### Basic Services Availability  
This category focuses on analysing issues that contribute to the accessibility of urban public amenities and services for the daily life of inhabitants of a neighbourhood. The category is addressed by many of the studied sustainability assessment tools and is based on three indicators (Figure 3). This issue influences an inhabitant's sense of place [26]. Public sector services include parks, public squares, and recreational facilities, and private sector amenities include restaurants and cafes, retail, and other goods or service providers [27]. The provision of amenities enhances the advantages of economic prosperity and attracts people to the areas where they are located [28]. ISO 37120 and SDG 1.1.4 highlighted the importance of the neighbourhood's proximity to basic services. Additionally, for access to recreational facilities, ISO 37120 promoted the assessment of the area of public outdoor recreation spaces and the budget allocated to cultural and sporting facilities by the municipalities. Aside from these indicators, ISO allocated an indicator for assessing the urban agricultural area and the amount of locally produced food, revealing the importance of local food production. SDG 2.3.2 supports this issue by examining the average income of small-scale food producers. Therefore, the essential indicators for assessing the availability of basic services, shown in Figure 3, are described below:  
Availability and proximity to public and local customer services: This indicator analyses the availability of a set of diversified public and customer services in the local area, which are vital parts of supporting sustainable and resilient rural and small-town areas [29]. It is covered by SBToolPT_Urban (2018), SNTool Min (2020), BREEM-C (2012), and LEED-ND (2018), and supported by SDGs and ISO 37120. This factor can influence the residents' choice of walking instead of using vehicles if a wide range of retail goods and services are available within easy walking distance [30]. Some of the essential local public services that should be considered in every neighbourhood include health clinics; hospitals; childcare; social services; police, fire and ambulance stations; schools; and customer services, such as grocery stores, laundertertes, pharmacies, etc. Availability of recreational facilities: This indicator is covered by SBToolPT_Urban (2018) and LEED-ND (2018) and supported by ISO 37120, which focuses on the availability of public facilities that support the needs of culture, sport, religion, and recreation of the inhabitants. This indicator encourages pedestrian or bicycle travel to promote urban vitality and the health of the inhabitants of the neighbourhoods. The main elements that are determined for assessing sustainability through this indicator include playgrounds, plazas and gardens, places of worship, community centres, sports centres and gyms, recreational and cultural centres, museums and exhibition centres, and cinemas and the theatres. Availability of local food production: The term \"local food\" is used for products produced and consumed within a particular narrowly defined geographical area [31], which is the domain of this indicator. This indicator is addressed by SBToolPT_Urban (2018) and LEED-ND (2018) and supported by SDGs and ISO 37120. Local food production guarantees city inhabitants' access to fresh products, promotes community food production, and contributes to improving residents' nutrition, supporting the economic development of the area by supporting small farmers and reducing the harmful effects of large-scale industrialized agriculture [23]. Short food-supply chains (SFSCs), community-supported agriculture (CSA), direct farmer-to-retailer business, farmers' markets, farm shops, on-farm or digital direct sales, and box schemes are some examples of local food marketing strategies [32].