Since the beginning of the 20th century, scholars and urban policy makers have been gauging urban sustainability progress worldwide. However, an analysis of this notion in distressed places has not been investigated anywhere as yet. This dissertation aims to advance the knowledge of distressed urban areas and to comprehend the construction of an Urban Sustainability Index (USI) for such areas. This research study has proposed four primary research questions to achieve its goals: 1) What is the definition of a distressed place? 2) What are the characteristics of distressed places? 3) To what extent can a taxonomy be created of distressed places?; and 4) What is the methodological framework to be employed to construct an urban sustainability index for a distressed place? Qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed to address the research questions. Specifically, preliminarily mixed-methods consist of systematic, holistic, multi-criteria, and integrated approaches. A two-stage exploratory design, a theoretical scenario, and a case study have been employed to validate the proposed framework to monitor urban sustainability progress. The theoretical scenario for a generic distressed place called X is provided with a step-by-step theoretical guide and a foundation on how to construct a USI for X's context. Duhok City, located in Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq, is used to develop a functional framework of indicators to assess and measure urban sustainability after the Kurdistan Region declared autonomy in 1991. This city is located in a distressed region that has experienced rapid urbanization and expansion, geopolitical dilemmas, and socio-economic issues. This case study addresses several fundamental issues for sustainability measures in the city by investigating the key factors that influence the pattern of urban sustainability, and how can they be used to promote future sustainable practices? The study found that distressed urban areas' typology takes two fundamental forms that present context-specific conditions in cities and socioeconomic and environmental conditions in communities. Most research has concentrated on challenges in urban settings without acknowledging that distressed urban areas' characteristics are heterogeneous. Therefore, this research argues that conditions caused by geopolitical stress and the global health crises could threaten the very fabric, dynamics, and quality of life of urban areas. The study highlights nine urban sustainability indicators, from a total of 39 indicators, that played an essential role in navigating the general trend of urban sustainability in the city of Duhok and how they can be used to promote future sustainable practices. It also argues that distressed communities, like normal and healthy places, need to acknowledge when they succeed and fail. Monitoring the sustainability progress in such places will overcome interlinked socio-economic and environmental issues, and a vicious decline in urban life quality. Further investigations on comparative case studies can cover more distressed places. In other words, the role of political stability, government effectiveness, and the quality of planning regulations in achieving significant progress towards urban sustainability are vital for further research.
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