Integrating Spatial analysis, Ecosystem Services and cost analysis for Nature-Based Solution (NBS) planning in the urban context

Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are suggested as strategies to mitigate climate change effects in urban contexts. However, cities face issues in planning with NBS due to the lack of a comprehensive evaluation framework to properly support the strategic integration of NBS in urban planning. This research aims to fill this gap by proposing a multi-step evaluation framework to firstly identify the most suitable intervention area, and secondly provide an overall evaluation of NBS interventions according to both cost and benefits. The proposed model has been applied to the city of Milan to identify the most urgent area for NBS implementation, according to multidimensional vulnerability maps. Three NBS alternative scenarios have been compared with the business-as-usual scenario and evaluated according to cost and benefits accounted through Ecosystem Services. The evaluation results are monetary and non-monetary values, useful for supporting decision processes for NBS planning in urban contexts.