The Assessment Framework represents a comprehensive, operational framework developed under the GreenInCities project to support the integration of sustainable Nature-based Solutions (NbS) into urban climate planning. Traditional urban greening has historically been aesthetic, fragmented, and concentrated in wealthier areas. This deliverable bridges critical planning gaps by providing operational guidance that connects high-level global, European, and national sustainability standards with localized, day-to-day spatial planning regulations, specifically tailored for vulnerable and socio-economically deprived neighborhoods.

The central output of the deliverable is the Re-Naturing Evaluation Matrix. This structured, multi-dimensional diagnostic tool maps the connections between:

1. Overarching Policies & Frameworks (such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, EU Adaptation Strategy, and the Nature Restoration Law).

2. Core Environmental Objectives and Targets (e.g., soil de-sealing, habitat connectivity, heat island mitigation).

3. Local Planning Levels (Metropolitan/regional plans, sectoral programs, and municipal zoning regulations).

4. Planning Gaps & Toolbox Solutions (directly linking identified municipal bottlenecks to quantitative diagnostic and decision-making support tools).

The deliverable is designed to serve as an actionable, public tool for a diverse range of stakeholders involved in climate adaptation and sustainability governance.

Primary Audience:

• City officials, technical staff, and urban planners

• Policymakers and regulatory bodies

• GreenInCities project partners (consortium)

Secondary Audience:

• Design and environmental professionals (architects, landscape architects, ecological restorers)

• Universities, researchers, and academics

• The 112 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities network

The framework was established through a four-stage co-creation methodology designed to combine scientific standards with localized urban realities:

1. Strategic Policy Review: A desk review of major international and European policy frameworks and technical standards to extract a consolidated, non-redundant set of re-greening, mitigation, and adaptation targets.

2. Leader City Questionnaire: A detailed diagnostic framework (Annex 1) administered to technical experts across the five Leader Cities (Athens, Prato, Barcelona, Nova Gorica, Helsinki) to evaluate how these European targets are reflected in their active planning instruments.

3. Co-Creation Workshops: Focused self-assessment sessions and plenary workshops (including the Cork workshop in M10, individual city interviews in early 2025, and the Matosinhos plenary in May 2025) where technical experts and city representatives validated planning criticalities.

4. Gap Synthesis & Matrix Integration: Systematizing the verified municipal bottlenecks across metropolitan, sectoral, and municipal plan levels to construct the final Re-Naturing Evaluation Matrix.

The deliverable consolidates shared municipal weaknesses into four strategic domains and bridges them using specific tools from the D2.2 Sustainable Renaturing Toolbox:

1. Strategic Planning and Policy Integration:

   Gap: Weak integration between macroscopic climate adaptation strategies and local, day-to-day spatial planning regulations.

   Bridge: Microclimatic Performance Index (MPI) and Park Cool Islands (PCI) Assessment to map albedo, evapotranspiration, and heat island risks to steer zoning rules.

2. Operational Capacity and Technical Standards:

   Gap: Municipalities lack technical guidelines, budgets, and operational frameworks to design interconnected green-blue corridors.

   Bridge: Landscape Information Modelling (LIM) Pre-assessment Dashboard and Habitat Mapping to pre-evaluate vegetation-based cooling and ecological connectivity.

3. Monitoring, Data, and Evaluation Systems:

   Gap: Absence of standardized ex-ante/ex-post monitoring; baseline data is fragmented or uncoordinated across sectors.

   Bridge: Analytic Toolkit for Causal Indicator Networks and the LAND Sustainability Compass® to mathematically model KPI synergies and track SDG contributions.

4. Participatory Governance and Stakeholder Engagement:

   Gap: Limited community ownership, leading to low social acceptance of NbS and a lack of long-term co-maintenance partnerships.

   Bridge: Decision Support System (DSS) and Neurourbanism Assessment (NUA) to prioritize co-created micro-projects and measure the direct psychological/well-being impacts of public spaces on citizens.

• Provides a concrete, replicable methodology enabling European cities (specifically the 112 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities committed to 2030 targets) to systematically assess, plan, and execute renaturing strategies.

• Successfully bridges the historical gap between high-level macroscopic climate frameworks (such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 or Nature Restoration Law) and municipal, day-to-day spatial planning regulations.

• Outlines how specific operational, governance, technical, and monitoring planning bottlenecks can be actively resolved by integrating the 17 quantitative tools of the D2.2 Sustainable Renaturing Toolbox.

• Promotes a paradigm shift from purely aesthetic urban greening to multi-functional Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that simultaneously support human mental/physical well-being and non-human habitat networks.

• The targets identified in the Re-Naturing Evaluation Matrix serve as an operational baseline to construct the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) indicators used for long-term post-intervention pilot assessments.

Figure 6: The Re-naturing Evaluation Matrix master schematic

Figure 7: Self-assessment exercise investigating missing connections between municipal plans and larger-scale regulations

Figure 8: Methodological flowchart of the urban climate and green plans assessment and toolbox integration

Table 8: Connecting planning gaps with the GreenInCities Sustainable Renaturing Toolbox

Table 9: Questionnaire for climate adaptation and renaturing measures in urban plans and policies

Table 10: List of the 17 tools and methodologies included in the GreenInCities Sustainable Renaturing Toolbox