Sustainable Evaluation Framework for Urban Creative Space: Exploring a Better Way for Urban Development

Amid the accelerating waves of global digitalization and the deepening interplay of cultural diversity, urban creative spaces have become pivotal arenas for the digital creative industry—yet a systematic, cross-culturally robust tool for assessing their sustainability remains conspicuously absent. Here, we address this gap by constructing a multi-dimensional evaluation framework derived from a systematic literature review, comprising five primary dimensions—AIGC technology integration, cultural heritage preservation, the economic benefits of the digital cultural industry, ecological synergy and social inclusiveness, and governance and policy support—along with 20 secondary indicators. To enhance methodological rigor, we integrate the Intuitionistic Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (IFAHP) to determine indicator weights while mitigating the subjective biases inherent in traditional approaches and employ the TOPSIS method to quantitatively assess and rank the creative spaces of five representative cities: London, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Berlin. Our findings reveal that London leads in comprehensive sustainability, followed closely by Shanghai, with sensitivity analysis confirming the high robustness of the rankings. The originality of this work lies in reconceptualizing AIGC not as a conventional digital instrument but as a core transformative driver embedded within the evaluation architecture, while the application of IFAHP substantially enhances the scientific validity and methodological reliability of the assessment. This research provides an operational diagnostic tool and actionable optimization pathways for advancing the sustainability of urban creative spaces worldwide, offering practical implications for fostering cultural innovation, bridging the digital divide, promoting social inclusiveness, and informing evidence-based urban governance policies.