Towards Sustainability Assessment of the Built Environment: A Classification of the Existing Challenges

The application of sustainability assessment in a decision context is associated with various challenges that explain why the transition to action-oriented knowledge still needs to be fulfilled. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the associated challenges in sustainability assessment in the decision context of the built environment. Several publications are reviewed to provide a systemic understanding of the associated complexities. The challenges in sustainability assessment in the built environment are categorized at different levels, from understanding to measurement and implementation. The challenges are further categorized into definition, context, interpretation, data, measurement methods, uncertainties, indicators and indices, results, coordination, conflicts, and action-oriented knowledge. Moreover, according to the nature of each challenge, they are classified into epistemological, methodological, and procedural challenges. The novelty of this review is that it reviews and reports almost all fragmentedly reported challenges in sustainability assessment of the built environment in the literature within a holistic framework that provides a clear understanding of the state of the art and second discusses them within an integrated framework (the Sustainability Assessment Network) including the position of active-role players to resolve them, including strategists, scientist, and stakeholders.