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Abstract: Neighborhood sustainability assessment tools have become widespread since the turn of 21st century and many communities, mainly in the developed world, are utilizing these tools to measure their success in approaching sustainable development goals. In this study, seven tools from Australia, Europe, Japan, and the United States are selected and analyzed with the aim of providing insights into the current situations; highlighting the strengths, weaknesses, successes, and failures; and making recommendations for future improvements. Using a content analysis, the issues of sustainability coverage, pre-requisites, local adaptability, scoring and weighting, participation, reporting, and applicability are discussed in this paper. The results of this study indicate that most of the tools are not doing well regarding the coverage of social, economic, and institutional aspects of sustainability; there are ambiguities and shortcomings in the weighting, scoring, and rating; in most cases, there is no mechanism for local adaptability and participation; and, only those tools which are embedded within the broader planning framework are doing well with regard to applicability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, an attempt has been made to develop an expert system using fuzzy approach to investigate the effects of noise pollution on speech interference. The speech interference measured in terms of speech intelligibility is considered to be a function of noise level, distance between speaker and listener, and the age of the listener. The main source of model development is the reports of World Health Organization (WHO) and field surveys conducted by various researchers. It is implemented on Fuzzy Logic Toolbox of MATLAB using both Mamdani and Sugeno techniques. The results are found to be in good agreement with the findings of World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The study reveals that for good communication at normal distances (‘short’ and ‘medium’) encountered in ambient environment, the noise level should not exceed 65dB(A) for ‘young’ and ‘middle aged’, and 55dB(A) for ‘old’ persons. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]