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The urban population in Indian cities is increasing at an alarming speed. Accommodating such a huge population while sustaining the environment is a challenge in urban areas. Compact urban forms with high-density planning is claimed to be a sustainable solution in such situations. Thus, this approach needs to be tested for Indian urban areas.

This paper formulates a neighbourhood sustainability assessment (NSA) framework for monitoring, assessing and managing the population density of urban neighbourhoods. The paper identifies context-specific built density indicators at the neighbourhood scale. It assesses the indicators in neighbourhoods with varying population density by physical and perceived measures. This helps in verifying the feasibility of density by physical density assessment and verifies the acceptability of density by perceived density assessment.

When tested in the Indian context, the framework shows that although high-density neighbourhoods are sustainable, certain indicators may endorse differing densities. The result displays that high-density planning is sustainable compared to low- and medium-density neighbourhoods in the selected cities.

The study demonstrates the application of formulated assessment system in three central Indian cities with useful results. Similar studies can be conducted to identify the gaps for improving sustainability and achieve a livable density pattern.

Although sustainable development goals are part of new planning policies, there exist very few assessment systems to determine the sustainability of neighbourhoods, especially for density. The methodology will assist in developing sustainability assessment frameworks and encourage the practice of sustainability assessment in developing countries like India.