Author(s): Moniz, Gonçalo Canto Ferreira, Isabel
Published in: Rassegna di Architettura e Urbanistica,, Issue 158, 2019, ISSN 0392-8608
Publisher: Sapienza, University of Rome
DOI: 10.1400/273027

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The European Commission is promoting an inclusive urban regeneration, in the frame of the Smart and Sustainable cities, that should integrate the environmental approach, through the nature-based solutions (nbs), and the social approach, through the co-creation process. More than research projects, the financing programs, as H2020, are supporting innovation actions that move the research from the universities to the communities, creating living labs. These laboratories are holders, municipality technicians, companies and researchers in order to develop together solutions for new urban challenges.

ABSTRACT: Based on the interdisciplinary dialogue and ongoing studies within URBiNAT project (Horizon 2020) and HURBE project (Erasmus+ Program), the paper presents a conceptual and methodological approach to integrating the topic of “city health” into urban planning.

Author(s): Marcel Cardinali, Mariëlle A. Beenackers, Arjan van Timmeren, Uta Pottgiesser
Published in: Software Impacts, Issue 16, 2023, ISSN 2665-9638
Publisher: Elsevier B. v.
DOI: 10.1016/j.simpa.2023.100506

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ABSTRACT: In the interdisciplinary field of green space health research, there is a demand to reduce the effort to assess green space, especially for non-spatial disciplines. To address this issue, we developed AID-PRIGSHARE, an open-source script that automates over 400 QGIS processes to substantially reduces the time-intensive task of generating green space indicators. AID-PRIGSHARE calculates greenness, public green space, access to green infrastructure, and green space uses within distances of 100–1500 m around geolocations. This substantially reduces the effort for sensitivity analysis and may provide support for research that aims to understand the impact of different green space features and distances on health outcomes.

Marcel Cardinali, Alvaro Balderrama, Daniel Arztmann, Uta Pottgiesser

Nature-Based Solutions, Volume 3, 2023, 100070, ISSN 2772-4115

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ABSTRACT: Current societal challenges like climate change led to a general agreement that our cities need to become greener and our lifestyles more sustainable. This transformation of our daily living environments can also impact the prevalence of non-communicable diseases as a global disease burden of our time. These positive impacts of horizontal green spaces on human health are widely recognized. However, it is still unclear whether the same is true for green walls, as a promising nature-based solution for dense urban spaces which is increasingly applied. To date, the available research on green walls has not been systematically synthesized along the potential impact pathways of reducing environmental stressors (Mitigation), restoring capacities (Restoration), and promoting healthier behavior (Instoration). We conducted a systematic review of 30 reviews to synthesize available evidence on all three pathways and direct health outcomes, following the established strategies of PICOS and PRISMA. We assessed the review quality through AMSTAR. We found strong consistent evidence that green walls can mitigate urban heat island effects (daylight surface temperature: -0.3 °C to -31.9°, daylight air temperature: -0 °C to -8.7 °C), air pollution (PM2.5: -25% to -99%, PM10: -23% to -60%), and noise pollution (sound pressure level: -1dBA to -5dBA). We found some evidence for disaster risk reduction and restoration effects. There were no reviews on the instoration pathway or direct health outcomes. The underlying reviews rated low according to the AMSTAR checklist, which might limit our findings. We recognize a generally young research field and conclude that more in-field studies are needed in all pathways to better understand the relationship between green walls and health.

Author(s): Marcel Cardinali, Mariëlle A. Beenackers, Arjan van Timmeren, Uta Pottgiesser
Published in: Environmental Research, Issue 228, 2023, ISSN 0013-9351
Publisher: Academic Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115893

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ABSTRACT: The relationship between green spaces and health is attracting more and more societal and research interest. The research field is however still suffering from its differing monodisciplinary origins. Now in a multidisciplinary environment on its way to a truly interdisciplinary field, there is a need for a common understanding, precision in green space indicators, and coherent assessment of the complexity of daily living environments. In several reviews, common protocols and open-source scripts are considered a high priority to advance the field. Realizing these issues, we developed PRIGSHARE (Preferred Reporting Items in Greenspace Health Research). It is accompanied by an open-source script that supports non-spatial disciplines in assessing greenness and green space on different scales and types. The PRIGSHARE checklist contains 21 items that have been identified as a risk of bias and are necessary for understanding and comparison of studies. The checklist is divided into the following topics: objectives (3 items), scope (3 items), spatial assessment (7 items), vegetation assessment (4 items), and context assessment (4 items). For each item, we include a pathway-specific (if relevant) rationale and explanation. The PRIGSHARE guiding principles should be helpful to support a high-quality assessment and synchronize the studies in the field while acknowledging the diversity of study designs.

Author(s): Marcel Cardinali, Mariëlle A. Beenackers, Arjan van Timmeren, Uta Pottgiesser
Published in: Environmental Research, Issue 241, 2024, ISSN 0013-9351
Publisher: Academic Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117605

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ABSTRACT: Non-communicable diseases are the global disease burden of our time, with physical inactivity identified as one major risk factor. Green spaces are associated with increased physical activity of nearby residents. But there are still gaps in understanding which proximity and what characteristics of green spaces can trigger physical activity. This study aims to unveil these differences with a rigorous sensitivity analysis. We gathered data on self-reported health and physical activity from 1365 participants in selected neighbourhoods in Porto, Nantes, Sofia, and Høje-Taastrup. Spatial data were retrieved from OpenStreetMap. We followed the PRIGSHARE guidelines to control for bias. Around the residential addresses, we generated seven different green space indicators for 15 distances (100–1500 m) using the AID-PRIGSHARE tool. We then analysed each of these 105 green space indicators together with physical activity and health in 105 adjusted structural equation models.

Author(s): Arnaud Sapin, Philippe Bódenan, Thierry Lebeau, Ghozlane Fleury-Bahi
Published in: Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 2022, ISSN 1099-1298
Publisher: Wiley
DOI: 10.1002/casp.2663

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In a context of re-greening of urban spaces, it is crucial to examine the impact of green spaces on the population. In this qualitative study carried out in France (Nantes), 28 people with a plot in an allotment garden were questioned through semi-directive interviews about the psychosocial impact of this type of space. Using thematic and lexicometric analyses, the different psychosocial benefits of these spaces are highlighted and put into perspective with the conflicts occurring there. The content analysis foregrounded the benefits of allotment garden regarding psychological well-being, (notably through the feeling of flow), physical health, self-development and social bonding. Nevertheless, these benefits are balanced by the different conflicts reported by the participants. By showing that positive and negative social aspects are significantly associated in the participants' discourse, the lexicometric analysis strengthened the idea that these elements must be considered jointly to better describe the reality of allotment gardens.

Author(s): Philippe Bodénan, Hugo Doux, Béatrice Béchet, Patrice Cannavo, Liliane Jean-Soro, Thierry Lebeau, Cécile Le Guern, Laure Vidal-Beaudet

Published in: Projets de paysage, Issue 27, 2022, ISSN 1969-6124

Publisher: École nationale supérieure du paysage de Versailles-Marseille

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ABSTRACT: Le jardinage urbain est aujourd’hui en plein essor. Les collectivités prennent part à cette dynamique pour répondre à la demande des habitants mais aussi parce qu’elles y voient une solution à de nombreux enjeux de la ville durable. De ce fait, elles sont confrontées à celui de la qualité des sols. Compartiment de l’environnement rarement mis en avant, les sols urbains sont en effet soumis à de nombreuses contraintes : perte de potentialités agronomiques ou pollutions. Basé sur des expériences nantaises, l’article explore le processus par lequel les villes établissent un diagnostic puis interviennent sur la qualité des sols, abordant à la fois les outils et les interactions avec les habitants-jardiniers. L’approche paysagère adoptée permet d’aborder conjointement, et le cas échéant de relier, les nombreux défis de l’appréhension des sols par les collectivités à la fois par les inconnues qui persistent sur les sols urbains, les compétences et enfin la difficulté à articuler les dimensions technique et politique.

Author(s): Philippe Bódenan, Béatrice Béchet
Published in: Metropolitiques, 2023, ISSN 2114-5350
Publisher: Metropolitiques
DOI: 10.56698/metropolitiques.1890

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ABSTRACT: L’urbanisme paysager et écologique est aujourd’hui mobilisé dans les projets d’aménagement urbain (Clergeau 2020). Cette dynamique touche les quartiers d’habitat social, comme en témoigne le succès récent de l’appel à projet « Les quartiers fertiles » de l’Agence nationale de la rénovation urbaine (100 lauréats au niveau national, ANRU 2021), ou le projet de la « rénovation verte du grand Belle-Beille » (2016-2027), à Angers. Les grands ensembles, forme emblématique de l’habitat social planifié et aménagé par l’État, se caractérisent par leur architecture de tours et de barres, la dimension des opérations et leur zone d’implantation (Bertho 2014). Si ce type de quartier semble doté d’une abondance d’espaces verts, certains le voient pourtant « comme un archétype de la ville repoussante » (Guet 2011).

Author(s): Milena Tasheva-Petrova, Elena Dimitrova, Angel Burov, Irina Mutafchiiska
Published in: Urbani izziv, Issue 32 (supplement), 2021, Page(s) 91-105, ISSN 1855-8399
Publisher: Urbanistični inštitut Republike SIovenije
DOI: 10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2021-32-supplement-6

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A case-study based qualitative research on public space and public life in four housing estates in the north-western periphery of Sofia provides the basis for re-thinking urban legacy and the Modernist concept of public interest, once placed in the core of urban planning. The expert estimation of the current physical state and functioning of open public space in the housing estates, initially developed from the 1960s to 1980s, is compared to current inhabitants’ estimations of the potential of public space to respond to their needs and visions regarding its quality. The capacity and limitations of local inhabitants to articulate a common vision of public space in dialogue with experts and authorities are discussed. The authors claim that further urban research is needed to conceptualize present visions for public interest, public life, and public space in the transforming housing estates in Central and Eastern Europe in order to enhance the effectiveness of inclusive planning approaches for urban regeneration. Keywords: urban research, public space, Modernist housing estates, Sofia, inclusive urban regeneration.

Author(s): Gonçalo Canto Moniz, Ingrid Andersson, Knud Erik Hilding-Hamann, Américo Mateus, Nathalie Nunes
Published in: Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable Urban Planning. Contemporary Urban Design Thinking, 2022, Page(s) 105-146, ISBN 978-3-030-89524-2
Publisher: Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-89525-9_5

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In recent decades, many city authorities have been implementing strategies for the development of urban regeneration in their central areas. Most of these processes aim to improve the use of public space, and are often to be found in historic areas and waterfronts. The aim of this text is to put forward an alternative urban regeneration plan which focuses on the peripheral areas of cities, areas which were often built as neighbourhoods of social housing, and which now face environmental challenges as well as social and economic ones. To this end, the URBiNAT H2020 project is promoting inclusive urban regeneration that engages citizens and stakeholders in all the stages of the co-creation process. The overall objective is to implement a cluster of human-centred, nature-based solutions (NBS) in order to create Healthy Corridors that bring together both material and immaterial solutions that will impact the environment and the wellbeing of the community. The activation of Living Labs in the seven URBiNAT cities is building a Community of Practice so that knowledge can be shared with project partners, within the cities themselves, and with the public in the wider world. The intermediate results achieved in the pilot case studies validate the overall methodology and are helping us to identify lessons to be learnt and recommendations for the future.

Moniz, G.C., Andersson, I., Hilding-Hamann, K.E., Mateus, A., Nunes, N. (2022). Inclusive Urban Regeneration with Citizens and Stakeholders: From Living Labs to the URBiNAT CoP. In: Mahmoud, I.H., Morello, E., Lemes de Oliveira, F., Geneletti, D. (eds) Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable Urban Planning. Contemporary Urban Design Thinking. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89525-9_5

ISBN: 9788835149767
Edition: 1a edizione 2023
Publisher code: 1740.161

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What future is there for cities in a world that is becoming increasingly urbanised and in which many shocks are coming together in a context of growing uncertainty? And many other questions arise. Wich is the vision of the city in the light of the challenges of climate change, or of the increasing disconnection between the city and nature networks? And how can the growing poverty in cities or the rising ageing of both city structures and the urban population be addressed? How can health and quality of life be integrated into strategic urban development choices? What is the role of digital technology? And, more specifically, which urban strategy should be adopted to improve the transformative capacity of cities? "Building resilience must be at the heart of the future of cities. This means to foster productive and inclusive urban economies and actions, to mitigate and to adapt to climate change, promote clean energy, protect ecosystems and integrate public health into urban development" (UN-Habitat).

Author(s): Nathalie Nunes, Emma Björner, Knud Erik Hilding-Hamann
Published in: Sustainability, Issue 13(23), 2021, ISSN 2071-1050
Publisher: MDPI Open Access Publishing
DOI: 10.3390/su132313378

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ABSTRACT: Participation and citizen engagement are fundamental elements in urban regeneration and in the deployment of nature-based solutions (NBS) to advance sustainable urban development. Various limitations inherent to participatory processes concerning NBS for inclusive urban regeneration have been addressed, and lessons have been learnt. This paper investigates participation and urban regeneration and focuses on the development of guidelines for citizen engagement and the co-creation of NBS in the H2020 URBiNAT project. The methodology first involves the collection of scientific and practical input on citizen engagement from a variety of stakeholders, such as researchers and practitioners, to constitute a corpus of qualitative data. This input is then systematized into guideline categories and serves as the basis for a deeper analysis with researchers, experts, and practitioners, both inside and outside URBiNAT, and in dialogue with other cases of participatory NBS implementation. The results highlight an ‘ecology of knowledges’ based on a ‘living’ framework, which aims to address the specific needs of various segments of citizens and to match citizen engagement to the participatory cultures of cities. Implications and further research are also discussed, with a special focus on the implementation of NBS. The conclusions broaden the research context to include the refinement of the NBS approach, with participation being seen as both a means and an end.

Author(s): Beatriz Silva, Isabel Ferreira, Nathalie Nunes
Published in: Brazilian Journal of Business, Issue 3/1, 2021, Page(s) 1138-1153, ISSN 2596-1934
Publisher: Brazilian Journals Publicações de Periódicos e Editora Ltda
DOI: 10.34140/bjbv3n1-065

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ABSTRACT: A procura de soluções baseadas na natureza (NBS), no âmbito do Programa Quadro Comunitário Horizonte 2020, é um exemplo de como osdesafios societais têm vindo a assumir a responsabilidade de reformular o espaço urbano a partir da relação dos cidadãos com o seu meio e do aumento da inclusão social, a par da resiliência climática e hídrica e do aumento da biodiversidade. Como resposta, o projeto URBINAT propõe uma abordagem colaborativa de co-produção, co-design, co-implementação no desenho de soluções de regeneração urbana baseadas em dois eixos principais: por um lado arte e cultura e, por outro lado, mas em ação conjunta, a economiasocial e solidária. Se no primeiro eixo objetiva-se evidenciar as ferramentas artísticas que se pode dispor para processos de co-criação de soluções nas comunidades, no segundo procura-se evidenciar as potencialidades que a economia social inovadora traz para a regeneração e inclusão social e económica das comunidades. O presente texto procura explorar os contributos socialmente inovadores destes dois eixos, em contextos de regeneração de zonas urbanas massificadas. O presente texto foi elaborado em 2017 ereflete a experiência de constituição do consórcio URBINAT que nasceucomo candidato à concessão de financiamento para a criação de uma rede de cidades em que parcerias multissetoriais irão fomentar a inovação social para integrar bairros marginalizados num desenvolvimento urbano.

Author(s): Chiara Farinea
Published in: Techne: Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, Issue Special Series Vol. 2, 2021, Page(s) 165-169, ISSN 2239-0243
Publisher: Firenze University Press
DOI: 10.13128/techne-10703

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ABSTRACT: During the last decades a growing awareness about the effects of pollution on our planet and its inhabitants has led to a demand for a new environmental sensitivity in urban planning. Nature-Based Solutions have the potential to enhance the liveability and prosperity of cities, providing ecosystems services (Millennium Ecosystems Assessment, 2005). The paper explores pathways towards a progressive knowledge construction to shape a future in which NBS are largely integrated in our buildings and public space thanks to the use of digital technologies and design, transforming our cities into healthy, productive and collaborative environments.

Author(s): Beatriz Caitana (ed.)
Published in: Cescontexto, Issue 33, 2023, ISSN 2182-908X
Publisher: Centro de Estudos Sociais

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ABOUT: Issue #33 of Cescontexto-Debates offers a series of insightful reflections on the role of the Solidarity Economy in promoting a sustainable, nature-based transformation of the urban environment. This collection of contributions stems from a dynamic exchange between practitioners and academics within the context of the webinar series on 'Solidarity Economy for Urban Regeneration in Times of Uncertainty', a thought-provoking initiative hosted by the EU-funded URBiNAT project in June 2021.

Author(s): Gonçalo Canto Moniz, Isabel Ferreira, Beatriz Caitana, Nathalie Nunes, João Rui Pereira (eds.)
Published in: 2022, ISBN 978-989-8847-43-0
Publisher: Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra

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Author(s): Beatriz Caitana, Milena Tasheva-Petrova, Nathalie Vallet
Published in: Solidarity Economy Alternative Spaces, Power and Politics, 2024, Page(s) 206-227, ISBN 9781032307060
Publisher: Routledge
DOI: 10.4324/9781003306344-15

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ABSTRACT: The URBiNAT project’s regeneration of common urban spaces in deprived areas, funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, provides empirical evidence of Social and Solidarity Economy’s (SSE’s) contribution to the socio-economic adaptive capacity of nature-based solutions (NBS). The relationship between SSE and the perspective of inclusive urban regeneration offers many opportunities, when urban neighbourhoods are considered as a set of complex socio-economic, cultural and emotional relations rather than as spaces for circulation and living. A literature study demonstrates, for instance, that: (1) SSE is grounded in territoriality and stimulates connection with physical space; (2) a fairer perspective, more conscious of production and consumption, reinforces interdependence between SSE and nature; (3) equitable access to resources allows us to question the naturalisation of economic inequalities in territories and (4) new forms of sociability and connection with the community are grounded in the democratic management of initiatives. This chapter describes empirical findings of an investigation of the SSE component of the strategy for Sofia’s Healthy Corridor (NBS clustering) in the Nadezhda district, characterised by initiatives such as a Repair café, Bread house and Farmers’ markets network. In this chapter, the adoption of SSE concepts and practices as part of the implementation of a Healthy Corridor demonstrates that NBS can constitute more than a “green solution” and thus support inclusive urban regeneration.

Author(s): Toporkoff, Sylviane
Published in: Innovative Solutions for Creating Sustainable Cities, 2019, Page(s) 61 - 62, ISBN 1527-535932
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

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NBS for inclusive urban regeneration will be co-designed, co-developed and co-implemented in a trans-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder and participatory context. NBS consider the social sciences and humanities which play an essential role for social innovation, and thus addresses complex social and sociological challenges. The expected results of URBiNAT are multiple: it raises EU leadership and creates economic opportunities in global markets (supply and demand) with new products, services, protocols and standards. To ease the development of NBS appropriate measure favouring implementation include leveraging investments, reducing regulatory and administrative barriers, creating new local green jobs and, of course, increasing awareness of the benefits of renaturing cities. URBiNAT will demonstrate that the implementation of NBS is also a source of healthier, culturally diverse, and a greener, regenerated Europe, which may alter currently deprived districts as well as neglected or abandoned areas.

Author(s): McQuaid, Siobhán; Rhodes, Mary-Lee; Andersson, Thomas; Croci, Edoardo; Feichtinger-Hofer, Marianne; Grosjean, Matthieu; Lueck, Alina; Kooijman, Esmee; Lucchitta, Benedetta; Rizzi, Daniela; Reil, Alice; Schante, Joanne
Published in: From Nature-based Solutions to the Nature-based Economy - Delivering the Green Deal for Europe. Draft White Paper for consultation. Nature-based Economy Working Group of EC Task Force III on Nature-based Solutions, 2021
Publisher: NA
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5055605

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Decades of research and more recently public policy recognise that current economic practices are not compatible with a healthy planet. The European Green Deal aims to decouple economic growth from resource usage, decarbonise industry and do this in a fair and just way for society. Nature-based solutions (NBS) to address societal challenges have been identified as an important policy instrument to achieve the aspirations of the European Green Deal and other key policy objectives such as those set out in the EU Biodiversity for 2030 Strategy and the ambitions of “building back better” from the impact of COVID-19 in the EU Recovery plan. The European Commission identifies nature-based solutions (NBS) as those solutions to societal challenges that are “inspired and supported by nature, which are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience. Such solutions bring more, and more diverse, nature and natural features and processes into cities, landscapes and seascapes, through locally adapted, resource-efficient and systemic interventions” (Faivre et al., 2017). Nature-based solutions provide multiple benefits for biodiversity. While much focus to date has been on the environmental or social benefits of NBS, less attention has been paid to their economic potential and their role in a just transition to the type of sustainable economy envisaged in the European Green Deal.

Author(s): Siobhan McQuaid, Esmee Kooijman, Daniela Rizzi, Thomas Andersson, Joanne Schanté
Published in: 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-40679-2
Publisher: Publications Office of the European Union
DOI: 10.2777/307761

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This report is a first step in addressing knowledge gaps in the potential economic benefits of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and the challenges facing NatureBased Enterprises (NBE). Based on extensive consultations, we profile some of the economic activities where NBE are engaged in the delivery of NBS – generating new jobs and skills, innovations, and wider economic impacts through a nature-based approach that respects the needs of the environment and communities. We examine some of the key issues confronting stakeholders, including ‘greenwashing’. Such challenges are addressed head-on, informing recommendations on how to realise the transition to a nature positive economy with NBS and NBE at the core. This report is aimed specifically at economic policy makers but is of high relevance for policy makers across multiple domains, public sector institutions and agencies, researchers, civil society and NGO representatives, investors and financial institutions, industry and NBE delivering NBS.

Author(s): Adina Dumitru and Laura Wendling, Eds.
Published in: 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-22821-9
Publisher: European Commission
DOI: 10.2777/244577

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ABSTRACT: The Handbook aims to provide decision-makers with a comprehensive NBS impact assessment framework, and a robust set of indicators and methodologies to assess impacts of nature-based solutions across 12 societal challenge areas: Climate Resilience; Water Management; Natural and Climate Hazards; Green Space Management; Biodiversity; Air Quality; Place Regeneration; Knowledge and Social Capacity Building for Sustainable Urban Transformation; Participatory Planning and Governance; Social Justice and Social Cohesion; Health and Well-being; New Economic Opportunities and Green Jobs. Indicators have been developed collaboratively by representatives of 17 individual EU-funded NBS projects and collaborating institutions such as the EEA and JRC, as part of the European Taskforce for NBS Impact Assessment, with the four-fold objective of: serving as a reference for relevant EU policies and activities; orient urban practitioners in developing robust impact evaluation frameworks for nature-based solutions at different scales; expand upon the pioneering work of the EKLIPSE framework by providing a comprehensive set of indicators and methodologies; and build the European evidence base regarding NBS impacts. They reflect the state of the art in current scientific research on impacts of nature-based solutions and valid and standardized methods of assessment, as well as the state of play in urban implementation of evaluation frameworks.

Author(s): Marcel Cardinali, Adina Dumitru, Sofie Vandewoestijne, Laura Wendling
Published in: 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-40745-4
Publisher: European Commission
DOI: 10.2777/521937

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ABSTRACT: This publication provides a high-level summary of the detailed information available in Evaluating the Impact of Nature-Based Solutions: A Handbook for Practitioners. The handbook aims to provide practitioners with a comprehensive impact assessment framework for nature-based solutions and a robust set of indi-cators to assess the impacts of nature-based solutions across 12 societal challenge areas: Climate Resilience; Water Management; Natural and Climate Hazards; Green Space Management; Biodiversity; Air Quality; Place Regeneration; Knowledge and Social Capacity Building for Sustainable Urban Transformation; Par-ticipatory Planning and Governance; Social Justice and Social Cohesion; Health and Well-being; and, New Economic Opportunities and Green Jobs. The accompanying volume, Evaluating the Impact of Nature-Based Solutions: Appendix of Methods, provides a brief description of each cited indicator of nature-based solution impact and recommends appropriate methods to measure specific impacts, along with guidance for end-users about the appropriateness, advantages and drawbacks of each method in different local contexts.

Author(s): Adina Dumitru and Laura Wendling, Eds.
Published in: 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-22960-5
Publisher: European Commission
DOI: 10.2777/11361

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ABSTRACT: The Handbook aims to provide decision-makers with a comprehensive NBS impact assessment framework, and a robust set of indicators and methodologies to assess impacts of nature-based solutions across 12 societal challenge areas: Climate Resilience; Water Management; Natural and Climate Hazards; Green Space Management; Biodiversity; Air Quality; Place Regeneration; Knowledge and Social Capacity Building for Sustainable Urban Transformation; Participatory Planning and Governance; Social Justice and Social Cohesion; Health and Well-being; New Economic Opportunities and Green Jobs. Indicators have been developed collaboratively by representatives of 17 individual EU-funded NBS projects and collaborating institutions such as the EEA and JRC, as part of the European Taskforce for NBS Impact Assessment, with the four-fold objective of: serving as a reference for relevant EU policies and activities; orient urban practitioners in developing robust impact evaluation frameworks for nature-based solutions at different scales; expand upon the pioneering work of the EKLIPSE framework by providing a comprehensive set of indicators and methodologies; and build the European evidence base regarding NBS impacts. They reflect the state of the art in current scientific research on impacts of nature-based solutions and valid and standardized methods of assessment, as well as the state of play in urban implementation of evaluation frameworks.