Sustainable city and community empowerment through the implementation of community-based monitoring: A conceptual approach

A sustainable city should promote the active participation of its civil society in urban planning and development of cities as the means to satisfy their needs. However, the absence of an appropriate platform has caused the public to lose interest and neglect the process of planning and development. This article attempts to develop a conceptual framework for sustainable cities and communities’ empowerment through the introduction of community-based monitoring as a means to increase community resilience and well-being. Community-based monitoring is designed to be instrumental in addressing environmental sustainability issues with public participation, where the community champions the environmental monitoring process for the decision making of planning and development of cities. The conceptual framework is expected to serve as an approach in driving the urban community towards attaining a more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable environment.