Urban Social Sustainability Assessment: A Case Study of Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The world is rapidly urbanizing. By 2050, 2.5 billion people will gradually shift from rural to urban areas, with close to 90% of this shift taking place in Africa and Asia. In Southeast Asia, Cambodia’s Phnom Penh capital city is rapidly growing, making its development concerned with sustainability and inclusiveness, hereafter called “social sustainability”. Hence, this research aims to assess the social sustainability of the Phnom Penh capital city, to find out the strengths and weaknesses of its districts (14 khans), and then provide recommendations on improvement potentials for each district. This research developed an urban social sustainability assessment framework based on national development priorities, the New Urban Agenda, SDG11 (sustainable cities), and other SDGs that incorporated human wellbeing, such as SDGs1-6, SDG8, SDG10, and SDG12. The standard variable model was applied to standardize indicators before comparison to obtain high accuracy, and the data were sourced from the Phnom Penh capital socio-economic data (commune database). The results showed that the most sustainable district was Chamkarmon, followed by Boeng Keng Kang and Doun Penh. Prek Pnov was found to be weak in income generation and welfare while Kamboul was weak in structured gender equality. Prampir Makara was more resilient to vulnerability while Sen Sok was weak in this dimension. Boeng Keng Kang was strong in welfare and sanitation while Kamboul was weak in sanitation. Doun Penh was strong in clean water supply while Mean Chey was weak in this dimension.