Improving sustainability decision-making information at neighbourhood level: A new framework for performance assessment based on China's small residential district

Generally there are two primary types of assessment approaches for evaluating the environmental impact of the built environment (BE): qualitatively based building rating systems and quantitatively based material & energy accounting methods. Their respective strengths and inadequacies are often discussed and compared in the literature. However, empirical analysis is not used for such comparisons. This study applies both approaches to the BE at neighbourhood scale. The case study focuses on China's Small residential district (SRD). The objective is to understand what additional decision-making information can be generated by using both approaches. It is concluded that the two approaches complement one another and their simultaneous use can generate more decision-making information for various stakeholders.