The concepts of sustainable development (SD) and sustainable communities (SCs) are firmly on policy agendas. Conceptual clarity is essential for the selection of high-quality indicators to monitor progress in these areas. However, there are very mixed views about the nature of social sustainability (SS), and SC is rarely defined. Definitions that exist are extremely limited. This paper addresses these deficiencies by presenting a new definition and conceptualisation of SC in which addressing both social and environmental needs is critical. SS is clearly defined as addressing basic human needs, so that the criterion of sufficiency is met. Ensuring ‘sufficiency’ is crucial to ensure the provision of welfare within planetary boundaries, firmly integrating the social and environmental in conceptualising and operationalising SS. Using the new SC framework, the paper illustrates how regeneration programmes targeting housing could simultaneously address many social and environmental problems contributing to more progress on many dimensions of SD and the UN SD goals (UNSDGs).

中文翻译：

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可持续社区发展：为可持续住房和社区整合社会和环境可持续性

可持续发展 (SD) 和可持续社区 (SC) 的概念牢牢地出现在政策议程上。概念清晰对于选择高质量指标来监测这些领域的进展至关重要。然而，对于社会可持续性 (SS) 的性质，人们的看法非常不同，而且很少定义 SC。现有的定义极为有限。本文通过提出 SC 的新定义和概念化来解决这些缺陷，其中解决社会和环境需求至关重要。SS 被明确定义为解决人类的基本需求，从而满足充分的标准。确保“充足”对于确保在地球范围内提供福利至关重要，将社会和环境牢固地整合到概念化和实施 SS 中。