Abstract Body

The complex structure of cities based on the multiple interrelationships of different sub-systems (economic, social and environmental type) requires actions designed according to integrated logics aimed at urban sustainable principles. In accordance to current international and European planning dispositions on sustainable development, there is shared interest in programming-planning objectives of interventions to support territorial growth ensuring goods and services production in view of intergenerational equity. The actual epidemic emergency and its impact on the socio-economic, productive and environmental assets have highlighted the need to act in the city with a view to ensuring uniformity between territorial portions through services and goods so to mitigate the corresponding trade-offs in terms of the citizen’s needs.

The improvement and preservation of existing built-natural environment capable of generating services, i.e. multiple social, environmental and economic benefits for the community (eco-systemic services), is a strategic asset for many European and non-European cities during the last decade of the 20th century. The Food and Agricultural Organization and the Arbor Day Foundation are supporting city administrators to pursue sustainable development goals through nature-based solutions, capable of producing eco-system services, through the "Tree Cities of the World" programme.

In order to support initiatives planning according to sustainable criteria that consider the value aspect of the city measured in terms of eco-systemic services, this contribution proposes the creation of a synthetic index, the Integrated Ecosystem Urban (IEU) index, as incentive for public and/or private subjects to express convenience judgements on urban renewal projects as well as to identify priority intervention areas from an eco-systemic point of view. The construction of IEU indexes is conducted through a multi-parameter methodological approach (Integrated Assessment Framework, IAF). The proposed IAF is made by logical-operational phases that lead to the definition of the proposed index. Some of them are characterized by the implementation of algebraic structures typical of the Benefit of Doubt Approach and of Goal programming. The applicability of the proposed index is investigated by referring the IEU index to the metropolitan context of New York in USA.