This deliverable outlines the comprehensive evaluation methodology, monitoring plan, and indicator framework for the GreenInCities project. It is specifically designed to assess the performance of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in urban and peri-urban areas facing high socio-economic vulnerability.

To move away from uncoordinated monitoring practices, D7.1 establishes a harmonised, scalable, and participatory framework. It connects localized environmental, social, and economic challenges with strategic municipal policy objectives.

The deliverable sets the guidelines for collecting the ex-ante (baseline) data across all pilot cities, introduces the initial structure of an interactive, online GIS Policy Support System (PSS) to centralize results, and details the coordination of mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative) assessment tools.

Primary Audience:

• Pilot Coordinators, Technical Experts, and Local Site Managers

• Municipal Officers and Local Authorities

• GreenInCities Consortium Scientific Partners

Secondary Audience:

• The 112 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities network

• Environmental Scientists and Academic Researchers

The development of the GreenInCities monitoring framework followed a structured, scientific, and collaborative pathway:

• Methodological desk review: An in-depth review of 12 key European and international reference methodologies (including the EKLIPSE framework, the EU Practitioner's Handbook on NbS, Nature4Cities, and URBAN GreenUP ex-post monetary valuations) to extract best practices and indicator typologies.

• Socio-economic gaps ingestion: Analyzing the specific vulnerable conditions and site profiles of the project's pilots to align monitoring indices with social justice and equity priorities.

• Collaborative KPI selection: Coordinating with pilot teams during interactive workshops to define context-specific indicators mapped directly to proposed physical designs.

• Consolidation & harmonization: Refining, pruning, and standardizing individual city selections into a centralized, non-redundant list of indicators.

• Multi-criteria GIS prototyping: Collaboratively drafting mock-ups and wireframes in coordination with partners to design the online spatial Policy Support System.

The monitoring and evaluation framework establishes a structured, scientific, and multi-dimensional system to capture baseline conditions and assess long-term NbS performance through several core components:

• A standardized dictionary of 46 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is established and grouped into three overarching categories covering environmental and resilience, ecosystem (non-human), and public space use (human) dimensions.

• These standardized metrics are systematically mapped across key thematic domains, including air pollution, climate resilience, habitats and biodiversity, ecosystem health, accessibility, safety, health perceptions, and awareness.

• A step-by-step evaluation guide and timeline are detailed to steer pilot teams through the first four stages of ex-ante data collection, validation, and analysis prior to physical construction.

• The framework integrates a diverse suite of quantitative and qualitative tools—such as mobile air quality sensors (Diagnostic Mobility Labkit), citizen-led traffic counters (Mobility Citizen Science Kits), and portable neuroimaging headsets (mEEG)—to ensure holistic impact tracking.

• A user-friendly, open-source online GIS Policy Support System is prototyped to centralize qualitative narratives, quantitative indicators, and spatial layers into a shared communication hub.

The practical deployment of this environmental and social monitoring framework is projected to advance the technical capabilities of climate-adaptive city planning through several key strategic outcomes:

• Planners and city administrators can replace qualitative design assumptions with empirical, multi-dimensional data, allowing them to mathematically prove the microclimatic cooling, air purification, and cost-effectiveness of NbS.

• Methodological coherence and scalability are secured across diverse urban contexts, enabling direct, standards-compliant cross-city benchmarking and collaborative policy learning.

• Social inclusion, gender equality, and environmental justice are actively tracked, helping municipalities measure how green public spaces physically lower stress and support caregivers.

• Non-human experiences are formally integrated into urban planning, establishing dedicated ecological indicators to track changes in biodiversity, vegetation health, and wildlife habitat connectivity.

• The project establishes a continuous, evidence-based feedback loop where ex-ante diagnostic baselines actively steer co-design masterplans and validate long-term physical execution.

• Figure 8: Constructing theory of change process

• Figure 3: Policy Support System intentions for the ex-post phase D7.2

• Table 6: Comparison of the methodologies reviewed

• Table 11: Alignment of KPIs selection by pilot cities