Impact assessment for rural regeneration

Module content

This course focuses on the assessment of impacts of regeneration processes related to rural-urban relationships, involving both socio-economic and environmental resources. The ecosystem services connected to the above processes are analyzed and evaluated with reference to the “total economic value” of a resource, which includes a large taxonomy of both use and non-use values. Impact assessment involves the understanding and selection of appropriate Key performance Indicators (KPI) and the reference of a universal set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 targets to be achieved by the year 2030. The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights the importance metrics and indicators have for decision-making. To improve decision-making process in complex and dynamic contexts, such as those related to rural regeneration, there is a need to include public participation and have fully integration of socio-economic and environmental issues. The course will deal with this topic and will present a toolkit of most advanced methods and approaches for supporting decisions related to regeneration processes, including Multicriteria spatial decision support systems.