Peak-hour traffic congestion makes for an unhappy city.

The country’s capitals are also ill prepared for natural disasters and would struggle to cope in the face of a major terrorist attack.

That’s the conclusion of an innovative study that ranked 100 of the world’s cities according to how they fared when it came to social, economic and environmental factors — or, as the research lists them — people, profit and planet.

And unlike many other surveys of global cities, the Sustainable Cities Index placed Melbourne below its archrival of Sydney.

“A lot of people get confused with sustainability being just about the environment but, by our definition, balancing immediate needs of the population without compromising the needs of tomorrow is the heart of a sustainable city,” said Greg Steele, chief executive officer of design and consultancy firm Arcadis’ Australia Pacific arm, which commissioned the research.

Zurich, Switzerland, is the world’s most sustainable city.Source:Supplied

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA’S BEST CITY

The world’s most sustainable city was Zurich, which scored highest on environmental metrics for being a profit centre. But it fell because of the lack of work-life balance and high prices in the Swiss city.

Singapore, Stockholm, Vienna and London were also in the top five.

Asked which global city balanced profit, planet and people most successfully, Mr Steele highlighted Canberra, which is the highest ranked Australian city and the 18th most sustainable city worldwide.

“Canberra’s balance enabled it to jump ahead of other Australian cities,” he said.

It’s one of the city’s most derided features — its uniform design — that actually pulled it ahead.

“The planned nature of Canberra has really paid off,” Mr Steele said.

“It has lots of green space, not much manufacturing to pollute the air and they do clever things like their dealing with waste (which includes an aim of no rubbish going to landfill) which is way ahead of most other cities.”

Canberra is Australia’s happiest and most sustainable city.Source:News Corp Australia

SYDNEY TOPS MELBOURNE

Mr Steele said the ACT’s single level of government meant things got done quickly and initiatives, such as Canberra’s new light rail, were going to keep it on top.

But just like Australia’s other major cities, a lack of affordable housing had dragged it down.

And if Canberrans think they’ve got it bad, just head up the road.

“Sydney does the worst in Australia on housing affordability, greenhouse gases and exposure to natural disasters,” he said.

Despite the multitude of catastrophic events, from floods in Brisbane to bushfires on the outskirts of Melbourne, the report found dealing with disasters including possible terrorist attacks, wasn’t a priority.

London has already built a barrier to protect it from king tides and New York is looking at how it can cope with a once in a lifetime hurricane. But Australia is only just waking up in this area.

“We found all the Australian cities were down the list when it came to natural disasters and resilience.”

In the global rankings, Sydney was the world’s 21st most sustainable city, Brisbane the 30th and Melbourne 32nd.

The harbour city’s collection of world class universities and its generally healthier population pulled it in front of Melbourne and Brisbane. The Victorian capital also scored worse on the environmental front than Sydney.

Sydney scored well as an economic hub and clean, green city. Picture: Gregg PorteousSource:News Corp Australia

HAPPINESS

Yet last month, the Economist Intelligence Unit found Melbourne the world’s most liveable city with Sydney kicked out of the global leaderboard due to the “heightened perceived threat of terrorism”.

“Our criteria are quite different to liveable cities which are based on art and culture,” said Mr Steele.

“Our quality of life (metric) is a lot broader.”

He also said that the Arcadis survey measured something else: happiness — or the lack of.

A successful work life balance as well as a quick commute were factors that helped residents get happy.

“Our definition of a sustainable city would be happiness but in Australia we spend a lot of time commuting due to urban sprawl which means our work life balance is not great.”

Long suffering commuters driving from satellite cities — like Ballarat or the Sunshine Coast — into the major CBDs were significantly unhappier than those who have jobs within the same area.

Sydney’s massive investment in transport infrastructure — including the controversial West Connex motorways, new light rail and Sydney Metro rail projects — could help it become one of Australia’s happiest. But, said Mr Steele, the infrastructure is about two decades too late.

“Had the Government signed off 15-20 years ago on the second Sydney airport and it was now built that would have generated lots of jobs for people living in western Sydney who would have had a closer commute and not had to sit on freeways going into the CBD to find their work.”

Melbourne was down the list of Australia’s most sustainable cities. Picture: Mark StewartSource:News Corp Australia

SMART CITIES
In May, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a plan that hinted at a utopian urban and suburban future, with congestion-free commutes lasting no more than 30 minutes door to door.

“In my own city of Sydney you have areas where hundreds of thousands of people leave every day to go to work because the communities they live in have been allowed to build up in an absence of mind as essentially dormitory suburbs,” he said.

Banish dreams of high speed suburban trains. What the 30 minute city means is polycentric metropolises with alterative hubs dotted throughout and a cross train system that does more than just suck people into the CBD and then burp them out again at 6pm.

Parramatta is perhaps Australia’s most obvious example of a polycentric city hub serving as a finance, work, retail and cultural hub for western Sydney.

Yet, elsewhere in Australia, the opposite was happening. The sudden decline in major employers in Geelong — with the Ford plant and Target head office closing down — will inevitably see more people driving up the M1 to Melbourne.

The closure of Ford's Geelong plant could send more people up to Melbourne.Source:News Corp Australia

REINVENTION

“Geelong is going through a transition as manufacturing closes down and this is where some of these regional centres have to reinvent themselves,” Mr Steele said, pointing out the Gold Coast was now focusing on becoming a health as well as a tourism hotspot.”

But if not enough is done commutes will get slower and unhappiness will cloud the city, he said.

“We talk about the 30 minute city but once commutes get beyond 30 minutes to an hour, an hour and half, then our cities get dysfunctional.

“We lose that work life balance and that’s when people get annoyed.”