Ecosystem Services and Land Take. A Composite Indicator for the Assessment of Sustainable Urban Projects

The worrying levels of land take and insufficient ecosystem services related to phenomena of uncontrolled urban expansion in the cities force many countries far away from achieving Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030. It is necessary to promote strategies which lead to effective and efficient measures in the perspective of sustainable development. The work aim is to propose an evaluation protocol useful to support public and private subjects for sustainable practices in urban contexts. Depending on the types of use and land cover envisaged, the implementation of the proposed methodological framework allows for the definition of a Composite Indicator (CI) to measure the urban environmental and economic sustainability level. The proposed CI expresses qualitatively and quantitatively the socio-economic and environmental impact (trade-off) that single initiative generates in the reference context in terms of ecosystem services as a function of the land use change between ex-ante and ex-post phases of the urban transformation process. Multi-parameter methodological approach by a sequence of logical-operational phases that lead to the definition of the CI is proposed. Steps of the proposed method are characterized by the algebraic structures typical of the Benefit of Doubt Approach (BDA) and Goal programming principles. Testing of the proposed protocol for CI construction is in progress.