Europe’s newest green city: connecting neighbourhood pattern and urban sustainability: an indicator based study for the city of Zagreb

This thesis investigates the connection between patterns of neighbourhood development and urban sustainability. The study focuses on comparing three neighbourhood patterns of distinctive urban forms in the city of Zagreb, Croatia. The analysis and comparison is based on 9 urban sustainability indicators representing 7 design concepts - compactness, sustainable transport, density, mixed land use, diversity, passive energy design and greening. Subsequently, a strategy for sustainable urban development is composed, consisting of concrete practical guidelines for each of the chosen neighbourhoods, ending with an urban sustainability strategy for the city as a whole. The analysis identifies the modernist case study neighbourhood of Utrina and the Lower Town urban block structure case study area as the most sustainable, with the single family settlement of Ljubljanica being the least sustainable. Indicators including transit proximity, pedestrian route connectivity, civic amenity proximity and pervious surface intensity proved to be valuable in determining guidelines for the specific urban sustainability strategies which focused on improving the conditions identified by the indicators that the analysis determined to be the least positive. Cities continue to be a laboratory for a wide range of study, and as the subject of sustainability increases in importance, the use of urban sustainability indicators for its detection and monitoring will grow comparatively. This study into the correlation between urban form and urban sustainability in a European city gives a taste of the possibility and importance of such projects.