Sustainable Urban Development: A Scoping Review of Barriers to the Public Administration

Sustainable urban development (SUD) has become the mainstream touchstone after the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030) launch as an alternative for the increasing unbalanced growth impacting societal, economic and environmental spheres. Therefore, theoretical and empirical analysis of this topic is growing fast among academics and practitioners. However, SUD faces diverse barriers in terms of public policies and administration. This article analyses the academic literature on sustainable urban development to identify the trends among barriers impeding effective development through public policy and administration perspectives. By analysing ninety records, this article identified 183 fragments expressing the barriers to SUD classified into five types: organisational, interaction-specific, SUD characteristics, contextual and policy-related barriers. This article gives insight into developing more effective SUD policies by identifying the barriers in public administration and policy contexts based on the policy cycle framework.