The SEI Urban Toolbox for Liveable Cities

The SEI Urban Toolbox for Liveable Cities is a living digital resource hosted on the weADAPT platform, designed to gather SEI-developed tools for city officials, residents, and community groups. Developed through a four-phase co-design process involving internal reviews and workshops with stakeholders in Thailand, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, and Colombia, the toolbox focuses on improving environmental conditions, health, and well-being. Key findings from stakeholder workshops emphasized a strong demand for tools that foster citizen science, participatory mapping, and open data access to inform decision-making. The toolbox organizes resources into four main domains: residents' wellbeing, neighbourhood conditions, environmental quality and ecosystem services, and cross-cutting issues.

• The Urban Toolbox was developed through a four-phase process: an external review of 55 urban tools, an internal review of SEI resources, co-design workshops with urban actors, and internal workshops with SEI tool developers.
• City stakeholders across multiple countries expressed a need for increased public participation in data collection and planning, specifically through tools for citizen science, participatory mapping, and multi-stakeholder dialogue frameworks.
• Stakeholders highlighted the necessity for data to be accessible to both policymakers and citizens to better inform urban decision-making.
• The toolbox categorizes SEI tools into four primary topic areas: residents' wellbeing (e.g., water, mobility), neighbourhood conditions (e.g., crime, sanitation), environmental quality and ecosystem services (e.g., urban heat islands, disaster risks), and cross-cutting issues.
• A review of specific SEI tools revealed that while some are highly valued, others are limited by requirements for specialist expertise, expensive equipment, or the fact that methodologies are hidden behind paywalls.
• The toolbox is hosted on the weADAPT platform to facilitate knowledge exchange, networking, and the addition of new tools as a 'living resource'.

APA

Rao-Williams, J., Archer, D., & Witton, R. (2023). The SEI Urban Toolbox for Liveable Cities. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/urban-toolbox-brief-sei2023.028.pdf

Chicago

Rao-Williams, Jennifer, Diane Archer, and Rosie Witton. The SEI Urban Toolbox for Liveable Cities. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2023. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/urban-toolbox-brief-sei2023.028.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rao-Williams |first1=Jennifer |last2=Archer |first2=Diane |last3=Witton |first3=Rosie |title=The SEI Urban Toolbox for Liveable Cities |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=May 2023 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/urban-toolbox-brief-sei2023.028.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{raowilliams2023sei, author = {Rao-Williams, Jennifer and Archer, Diane and Witton, Rosie}, title = {{The SEI Urban Toolbox for Liveable Cities}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/urban-toolbox-brief-sei2023.028.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }