The set of 30 indicators that form the ClimateSmart City Assessment Framework 2.0 are a combination of metrics that are varied in nature and specifications. A series of steps have been followed to standardize data across all indicators. These steps have been outlined in this section.

Data Collection

Since 100 Smart Cities across India show wide variations in population sizes, it was deemed fit to bifurcate them into different tiers for better comparison. The classification of the tiers are as follows:

• Tier 1 - Population higher than 10 lakhs
• Tier 2 - Population between 5 lakhs and 10 lakhs
• Tier 3 - Population less than 5 lakhs

The cities are required to access this assessment framework 2.0 on the web portal like before and upload all relevant documents online. The data collection and analysis will be done for all the cities across the three tiers. The framework is intended for benchmarking between the cities and allows for many contextual approaches to be adopted in the Action Plans that are required, within the indicators. Since the assessment is for climate change actions that must be measurable in objective terms, most of the other indicators have universal application and must be attempted by all cities in their contexts.

Scoring Method

The nature of the indicator determines the nature of the data that is collected, and its units of measurement. This may vary considerably across categories. Each indicator will have a different scoring mechanism, the different data types used in this framework are elaborated within the subsequent subsections.

Percentage

Several indicators mark the performance of a city in terms of coverage of services or amenities provided or achieved or natural offsetting means available, marked against a larger total, e.g. the total population or per capita figures or total area. These indicators will, therefore, take the form of percentages.

Ratio

Similarly, to weigh the data for comparability, some indicators will be obtained in the form of ratios of one aspect against the other, and the higher the ratio, the better.

Binary Marking

Some indicators take the form of yes or no questions to the municipalities, and the levels go directly between 1 and 5. For e.g. has city conducted a water resource assessment or does the city have a storm water drainage plan.

Benchmarking

Some indicators fix an ideal or optimal value (either 100% or a certain unit of universal achievement) as benchmarking, while others take the best (or worst) performing city in the same tiers of comparison as a benchmark to be measured against. There are no indicators that use a deviation from mean as measurement, as they all have progressive marking across levels

Normalization

This is usually required to make the indicators comparable with each other, and to bring in standardisation or data aggregation across different units of measurement, which can enable a single ranking amongst cities. However, in the case of the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework 2.0, the value for each indicator is assigned on the selected criteria in terms of performance evaluation levels (level 1 to level 5), hence the issue of different units does not arise. The values of performance level ranges from 1-5, and the levels are defined such that there is no scope of outlier or extreme value, therefore, this exercise does not require the normalization process.

Aggregation

The aggregation methodology of the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework 2.0 is based on three elements namely category, indicators, and performance evaluation levels. Unlike in the first assessment, each indicator is assigned equal score i.e. 100 marks. The thematic sector wise score is then calculated by adding the scores against each of its indicators. The thematic sector wise list of indicators and maximum score allocated is as per the Table below.

ClimateSmart City Score

It is pertinent that the aggregated score presents the cities’ efforts towards mitigating and adapting actions but does not represent the actual impact of such actions. Therefore, to negate this, a ClimateSmart City score is calculated based on each sector weightage and score. The sector wise score is calculated by summing the weighted scores against each indicator.

CSC Score: [(A X 0.30) + (B X 0.25) + (C X 0.20) + (D X 0.15) + (E X 0.10)]

Assessment Titles for Cities

This section describes the assessment titles corresponding to the cities’ performance in the CSCAF 2.0. The details are presented in Table. The logic of the ClimateSmart Cities Assessment Framework 2.0 is to provide cities with indicators to evaluate their own performance and facilitate peer to peer learning along with ranking on the basis of their performance. In addition to assessment and ranking, the framework 2.0 intends to help cities understand their current status regarding climate actions and make efforts to improve their efforts in specific sectors . Based on the overall scores, the cities shall be given the corresponding titles.