(Impact) evaluation and assessment framework

This cluster includes six different approaches:

- Environmental Conflict Assessment Framework (CAF), SECOA project (2009-2013)

- Food-Chain Analysis with a focus on SMEs, FOODMETERS project (2012-2015)

- Initiative-based learning (IBL), PATHWAYS project (2013-2016)

- Predictive system of public health focused on risk and resilience, PULSE project (2016-Oct 2019)

- Fair Urban Greening (FUG) Index, GREENLULUS project (2016-2021)

- The Common Good Matrix, The Economy for the Common Good (n.d.)

General introduction to approach

Research on sustainable and just urban areas has involved a variety of evaluation and assessment methods. This cluster summarizes a sample of these methods, which have been employed in the study of the following topics: environmental conflict in coastal urban areas, food supply chains, transitions to sustainable and low-carbon societies, environmental public health risks, distribution of green amenities, and common good contributions by companies and other organizations. What unites these approaches is not their substantive content, but rather the innovative, fruitful, and transferable methods that can be employed in many contexts.

While each evaluation/assessment method is highly unique, they share several commonalities. Each one includes an in-depth research on their issue and its context. This could include research on governance arrangements and the impacts of certain events, system change, development patterns etc. The assessments are carried out using case studies, pilot projects, and in one case, big-data. Each assessment framework is mainly aimed at helping policymakers by: producing policy recommendations, decision-support tools, public-use data repositories, scenarios, enhancing policy learning, predicting and mitigating risks, and even changing norms in policy making. Each assessment method has a strong focus on environmental sustainability, and a varying degree of justice considerations.

Note: Two approaches, Socio-technical strategy assessment (DESAFIO, 2013-2015) and Impacts quantification of globalization (GLOBAL-IQ, 2011-2014), are worth noting in this cluster but do not sufficiently cover UrbanA concepts of sustainability and justice in urban settings to be further elaborated upon here. See references for more information about the projects.