Connecting Nature Deliverable 2: Report on the outcomes of the lessons learned, mapping of emerging experiments and expert workshops, leading to a synthesis of the most promising indicators for nature-based solutions

This Deliverable presents the Connecting Nature Impact Assessment framework and capacity-building process whose aim has been to support the mainstreaming of a culture of impact evaluation and evidence-based nature-based solutions (NBS) design and implementation in cities. The framework is the result of a co-production process between academic and city council partners in the project and has been implemented in the cities, leading to the development of monitoring and evaluation plans for specific NBS exemplars at different scales. Additional capacity-building tools have been created to integrate the impact assessment framework into regular urban planning processes, such as an impact assessment training programme, and a digitally-supported impact assessment tool guiding cities through the process of thinking about and designing their monitoring and evaluation strategy. We present the Connecting Nature Impact Assessment Framework, and we illustrate it with the monitoring and evaluation plans of the front-runner cities. We then focus on an analysis of the main challenges experienced and lessons learned in this process of capacity building, to enhance transferability; we present how knowledge has been transferred to fast-follower and multiplier cities, and we finalize by drawing conclusions on the most promising indicators for NBS in cities, focusing on those indicators that have already been tested in practice.
Suggested citation: Dumitru, A., Peralbo Rubio, E., Tomé Lourido, D., Collier, M.J., Dick, G., Dymek, D., Dziubaba, A., Fagiewicz, K., Lupa, P., Mikuła, L., Poniży, L., Quartier, M., Sermpezi, R., Vos, P., and Zwierzchowska, I. (2021) Connecting Nature Deliverable 2: Report on the outcomes of the lessons learned, mapping of emerging experiments and expert workshops, leading to a synthesis of the most promising indicators for nature-based solutions. DOI: https:/doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7010920