Nature based solutions impact assessment: a methodological framework to assess quality, functions and uses in urban areas

Urban Green Areas quality assessment has been at centre of the discussion in planning disciplines for decades already but has rarely been effectively and efficaciously integrated into planning tools and strategies. Building on several methodologies to evaluate public space quality (Mehta, 2013), on the millennium ecosystem assessment (MEA, 2005) and on the expert groups report of the EKLISPE framework on the impact evaluation on NBS (Reynolds et al. 2016), in this paper we propose a comprehensive methodological framework to evaluate Urban Green Areas (UGAs) quality and performance aiming at integrating the ecosystem services they provide as parameters able to guide urban planning strategies and choices, thus boosting both the implementation of high quality and performant green urban areas and enhancing the overall city quality and liveability. Within the scope of this paper, we will focus on the so-called ecosystem based NBSs and we propose and introduce three different indexes to be assessed: i) Green space quality index ii) Green space services index iii) Green space uses index