UCC researchers develop first national localised index for sustainable development

18 Mar 2026

Researchers at University College Cork (UCC) have developed the first national index of sustainable development at sub-county level, providing researchers, practitioners, and the public with a tool to explore local sustainability.

Despite their global framing, implementation and monitoring of the SDGs have been primarily focused on the national level, using aggregated indicators that often obscure local variations.

This newly created index will address calls at national and European level for a localisation of the SDGs that can provide national governments with tools that accounts for in-country variation and targeted spatial policy. Without this localised tool, signals from the communities most at risk may be lost within large national or regional datasets.

The development of the Sustainable Development Index for Rural and Urban Areas of Ireland (SDI-RUI) at Small Area level (the finest spatial scale census data is available at) was based on 33 indicators, covering 13 SDGs and aggregated into three sub-indexes (economy, social and environment).

Published in Sustainable Development, the research team of Dr. Lucas Olmedo, Dr. Paul Holloway, Dr. John Barimo and Professor Mary O’Shaughnessy identified that rural areas with high urban influence and satellite urban towns rank in the top positions for SDG indicators related to social development. These categories show the relevance of rural–urban linkages for sustainable development, in this case for its social dimension. Building on this, the findings indicate that rural areas with high urban influence scored the highest values in the SDI-RUI (and all subsequent models run). This rural category with high urban influence presents a balanced score-ranking among the economy, society and environment.

Lead researcher Dr. Lucas Olmedo, now an assistant professor at the University of Seville said: "This Sustainable Development Index created at very granular level using Geographical Information Systems and the CSO Rural-Urban 6-tier typology can serve to localise economic, social and environmental needs of the population and territories and develop targeted place-based interventions and policies by relevant authorities in rural and urban communities."

Co-author Dr. Paul Holloway, Senior Lecturer at University College Cork said: "By creating a place-based approach to the sustainable development goals, it allows us to tailor global targets to specific contexts, such as cities, towns, villages, or even neighbourhoods. This provides individuals with spatial knowledge and localised intelligence of where people are being left behind and can subsequently be supported, but also highlight which areas are excelling in their policies and can subsequently be championed internationally."

The study also indicates that Irish cities cannot be classified as ‘sustainable cities.’ Cities are key for sustainable development due to their high values on the Economy index; however, due to their lower rankings in environmental and social connections they are less sustainable overall.

These results suggest the need for a greater focus on SDGs and targets related to social issues in Irish cities, including the improvement of basic services such as:

• Childcare access and affordability and home ownership (SGD target 1.4.).
• Environmental issues, including the improvement of water quality by reducing pollution (SDG target 6.2).
• The increase of renewable energy use (SDG target 7.2).
• The integration of ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning (SDG target 15.9).

The inconsistent distribution patterns in the geospatial data at a local level demonstrates the non-uniformity of SDG challenges at the national level while highlighting opportunities for targeted interventions at the local level to maximise the effectiveness of limited resources.

This multi-disciplinary engaged research is supported through the inaugural Government of Ireland-National University of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship in Rural Development and contributing to the work of the All-Island Sustainable Development Solutions Network currently managed by UCC.