In many cities, citizens face hugechallenges to meet their basicneeds of survival, including shelter,access to food, water and warmth.Once these are met, the humanneed for community, managingsociety and moving from “A to B”take on far greater importance.Cities are powerful engines thatbring people together and allowfor resource sharing to meetcollective needs. Our studyhighlights that emerging needs,such as digital connectivity, arebeing addressed in cities at alllevels of sustainability. A critical point is that humanneeds are fundamentallyhierarchical in nature. And ifcertain needs are not met,for example if housing is tooexpensive, then dissatisfactionwill follow. The SCI and otherstudies show that even highlydeveloped cities can struggleto meet the basic needs of theircitizens. As a result, the level ofpeoples’ satisfaction associatedwith their purpose or well-beingare undermined. Viewed from acitizen’s perspective, a city that ishighly ranked as sustainable butwith elevated levels of congestionnot meeting accessibility needs, isnot truly sustainable. This points to a series of corechallenges for all cities thatinfuence not only how they seekto improve their performance,but also how they prepare for adigitally-driven transformation. Itis important to look at how citiesmaintain services at current levelsof performance as they evolve,specifcally if they use innovationto ensure that currentlyrecognized needs and wants aremet. Second, how they allocatenew resources to meet changingcitizen requirements – prioritizinginitiatives to ensure that thegreatest benefts are delivered.Finally, how do cities ensurethat they are ft for the future –preserving resources so that theneeds of tomorrow’s citizens canbe met as well as responding tochanges in business models andeconomic circumstances. In the 2018 edition of the SCI,we continue our exploration ofthe People, Proft and Planetdimensions of city sustainability,building a greater understandingof the underlying characteristicsof cities that enable some tooutperform their peers. Ourintention is that by initiatingfurther debate on the natureof long-term success, cities willcontinue to challenge themselvesto meet the needs of their peoplefor both today and tomorrow. John Batten, Global Cities DirectorT he 2018 edition of Arcadis’ Sustainable Cities Index(SCI) explores city sustainability from the perspectiveof the citizen. We seek to understand in more depthhow diferent cities enable diferent citizen groups tomeet their particular needs.F o r e w o r d 3T he Sustainable Cities Index ranks 100 global cities on threepillars of sustainability: People(social), Planet (environmental)and Proft (economic).The SCI overall fndings highlightthe following: The importance of the Proftpillar as a driver for long-termsustainabilityThe need for mid-ranking cities to improve theirperformance across all pillars as a diferentiatorThe growing potentialfor cities to use the digital evolution of their serviceprovision to promoteengagement with citizens and as a key means ofimproving the citizen experience of city life. London is ranked the world’smost sustainable city in 2018with particularly high scores inthe People and Proft pillars. Theresults highlight that strengthsrefected in London’s status canofset challenges associated withafordability and congestion.London’s Planet ranking is lower,but still in the upper quartile,refecting air quality and wastemanagement issues seen in otherlarge cities.Stockholm, Edinburgh, Singaporeand Vienna complete the top fvein the Index. Whereas Stockholmand Vienna score highly againstPlanet criteria, Edinburgh isaligned more closely to the Peopleagenda. Singapore is highestranked in the Proft sub-index by a considerable margin. The top 20 sustainable cities aremostly established Europeanmetropolises. Additionally,representing Asia are Singapore,Hong Kong and Seoul - both well- established trading cities. NewE x e c u t i v e s u m m a r y 4 York, San Francisco and Seattleare the only U.S. cities in the top20. Two additional cities, Tokyoand Sydney, are lower – rankinghigh for People, but need toimprove in both Proft and Planet. Major cities across Africa and Asiaare represented in the bottom10 of the rankings. Importantly,it is the Proft performance ofthese cities, particularly relatedto ease of doing business andoutput that contributes to theirweak relative performance.Growing a robust local economyis a critical aspect of long-termsustainability, particularly giventhe close association of economicperformance with improvedquality of life. Although coastal cities includingNew York and Seattle featurein the top 20, most U.S. citiesfall in the bottom half of theranking. U.S. cities tend to scoreevenly across the three pillars,highlighting that these cities facebroad challenges across all pillarsto improve their sustainability.In Latin America, Santiago, SoPaulo, Mexico City and BuenosAires are all tightly clustered atthe top of the bottom quartile,typically scoring better in Peopleand Planet than in the Proft pillar. Kuala Lumpur benefts fromconsistent scores across all pillarsand outranks all the cities in Chinaexcept for Shenzhen as well asa number of U.S. and Europeancities. Performance across the Peoplepillar is relatively consistent acrossthe top 50 cities. Edinburgh topsthe sub-index, and the othercities have scores within +/- 10%.Afordability of city life, accessto public transport and incomeinequality are the big swingvariables. A cluster of cities at thebottom of the rankings highlightsthe challenge of meetingcitizen needs in many emergingeconomies. The afordability,health, education and digitalinfrastructure indicators allpoint to deep-seated challengesassociated with improving lifeexperiences in emerging cities. A group of smaller Europeancities led by Stockholm, sit atthe top of the Planet sub-index.Determinants of a high rankinginclude low carbon energyinfrastructure and signifcantgreen spaces. The expanded 2018Index also tracks investmentin low carbon transportinfrastructure, including bikesharing and electric vehicleincentives – highlighting the rapidadoption of these solutions inmany cities. 。。。。。。