Recommendations for a successful assessment of Nature-based Solutions in an urban context. URBAN GreenUP project lessons learnt

Abstract

The whole process of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) implementation is a complex procedure that requires the achievement of many aspects to finish as a successful hit. One of these aspects is the assessment of the value and functionality of the NbS. In this paper, we present a description of the main aspects related to the assessment that are necessary for a successful NbS implementation process. First, we provide an evaluation of the monitoring processes, the performance on the NbS and the assessment of the NbS impact. The European projects framework provides a wide number of examples of NbS implementation and in the case of this paper, as is the case for the project on which this report is based. By considering KPI (Key Performance Indicators) and the NbS efficiency this document delivers an assessment of the impact of NbS and an overview of the final status of the interventions in each of city as demo site in the project. The assessment has been conducted considering two main sources of information: 1) Evaluations developed during the initial phases of the project and the weights assigned to each variable under study, including the prioritization of the KPIs for each NbS implemented in each demo city and the evaluation of the potential impact that those NbS produced on several city challenges. 2) The monitoring of the NbS implemented and data collected, which has provided the assessment of combined impact of each NbS regarding city challenges. Likewise, the paper describes the methodology applied to make the overall assessment of the NbS through the performance of the KPIs. Additionally, we show the data an analysis of the technical, economic, social and environmental barriers, boundaries appeared in the course of KPI monitoring, and NbS implementation phases in demo sites. As conclusion, our work provides a user-friendly assessment methodology that takes into account economic, technical, social and ecological aspects related to NbS implementation processes and that has been validated in real case studies.