An urban indicator is a unit of information measured over time that documents changes in a specific condition in an urban context. The indicators have the objective of representing reality in a quantitative, simple and direct way, in order to prepare a clear analysis.

There are simple indicators and complex indicators. For example, the illiteracy rate and access to drinking water are simple indicators, since they refer to attributes whose presence or quality level can be verified in a simple and empirical way. The case of indicators such as the social indicator is different, which require a more complex conceptual framework, as both are a theoretical construct and do not have a concrete empirical equivalence. In the composition of indicators, clear and precise concepts must be present, which do not require great mathematical or statistical development.

Various classifications of urban indicators can be made according to the criteria chosen for it (a universal system has not been imposed). According to the Special Plan of Environmental Sustainability Indicators of the Urban Planning Activity of Seville,[1]​ the urban indicators can be differentiated:

• - Indicators related to social cohesion: access to basic equipment and services, income mix in residential construction: public housing.

• - Indicators related to urban metabolism: energy self-generation of homes, water self-sufficiency, minimization of collection systems in public spaces, urban solid waste, minimization and recovery of waste generated in construction and demolition, use of reused, recycled and renewable materials, reservation of spaces for self-composting processes, reservation of spaces for the installation of clean points and noise level.

• - Indicators related to the increase in biodiversity: citizen access to green spaces, compensation for waterproofing and sealing: Permeability index, provision of trees in public space, green corridors, green roofs, greening of facades, reservation of free space inside block interiors, weighted corrected compactness, calibrated compactness: living space requirements.

• - Indicators related to public space: public roads for passing automobile traffic and surface public transport, public roads for pedestrians and other uses of public space, continuity of the street corridor, prohibition of closed condominiums, provision of trees according to the vertical projection of shadow on the ground, potential for thermal habitability in urban spaces, provision of staffs without light pollution, design and introduction of ICT in urban furniture.