Mapping methodologies for assessing impacts of sufficiency measures in the built environment

The built environment faces systemic challenges like high energy demand, dependency on CO₂-intensive material and housing shortage. While efficiency measures have been widely targeted in the built environment, sufficiency measures remain underexplored despite their potential to be cost-effective and resource-efficient. Sufficiency prioritizes optimizing existing resources, minimizing structural demand and fostering shared spaces. The limited adoption of sufficiency is partly due to a lack of robust methodologies to measure their impacts and integrate social, economic and environmental factors in a variety of spatial areas. With existing methodologies failing to assess the underutilization of the built environment, spatial planners and policymakers are limited in leveraging these strategies for sustainable transformations.

This study therefore maps methodologies capable of assessing the impacts of sufficiency measures in the built environment. Through a systematic literature review of 220 initial records, 21 studies were shortlisted and analysed, whereas six methodology clusters were identified and their coverage of spatial areas and impact domains such as resource, space and mobility were assessed. Findings indicate that most studies operationalized sufficiency through space optimization or densification. Computational system models, GIS and LCA were the most commonly applied methodologies, covering a variety of impact domains and spatial areas.

By systematically mapping methodologies against impact domains and spatial contexts, this study moves beyond defining sufficiency or cataloguing measures but explores how sufficiency impacts in the built environment are currently assessed, laying a foundation for developing better decision-support in sufficiency-oriented spatial planning.