Framework
Learn more about our research framework.
Last updated 1 March 2025
The Liveability Framework
Through the study of Singapore’s development journey and taking into account current and emerging urban challenges, the Centre has distilled the desired outcomes and supporting systems undergirding Singapore’s approach to liveable and sustainable urban development. The Liveability Framework captures these findings in a diagram comprising three intersecting circles that represent the critical liveability outcomes, and an encompassing 'ring-like' structure that symbolise the three complementary systems that create the enabling conditions to achieve and sustain these outcomes.
Desired outcomes for a liveable city
Competitive Economy
Sustainable Environment
High Quality of Life
Systems to achieve these desired outcomes
Systems and outcomes
System | Outcome |
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Integrated Master Planning and Development |
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Dynamic Urban Governance |
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Collaborative Ecosystem |
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The Liveability Framework guides the Centre’s research focus and development of its knowledge products. It also provides city leaders and policy makers with a forward-looking and systems-focused lens through which they can generate more resilient strategies for high liveability and sustainability.
For more information on the Liveability Framework, please refer to Building Liveable and Sustainable Cities: A Framework for the Future.
The CLC Liveability Matrix
The CLC Liveability Matrix plots cities’ population densities against liveability scores derived from The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU’s) Global Liveability Index. Singapore is one of a few high-density cities that scored well in EIU’s Global Liveability Index.
Singapore is a densely populated island city-state with around 5.9 million inhabitants on just 730km2 of land. Despite this, it has been consistently recognised for its high standard of living in global liveability indices. Unlike most other liveable cities that typically feature a large hinterland, lower rise developments and a more dispersed population, Singapore’s post-independence urban transformation into a modern and thriving global hub represents a sustainable development model that combines a compact city structure with a high quality of life.