Abstract
In the context of sustainable urban planning, monitoring and evaluation systems are essential for supporting decision-making processes and guiding Public Administrations (PAs) toward informed, responsible, and sustainable choices. Despite the proliferation of sustainability guidelines and indicators, the transition from strategic frameworks to local operational implementation remains a significant challenge.
The GLOSSA research project (a GLOcal Knowledge-System for the Sustainable Assessment of Urban Projects), funded as a Project of Relevant National Interest (PRIN), addresses this issue by proposing a qualitative and quantitative multi-methodological framework comprising: i) A set of operational indicators designed as theoretical models to guide the implementation of urban transformation projects while quantifying and certifying their performance (Abastante and Mecca, 2025; Hiremath et al., 2013); ii) the Indicators’ Based Tool (IBTool), a multi-criteria evaluation software capable of prioritizing indicators and assessing the performance of alternative urban settings or projects (Cerreta et al., 2020); iii) training activities for PAs, designers, and students, aimed at fostering the sustainable transition of urban areas.
This research here presented primarily focuses on the IBTool, which is structured into four main modules:
1. Data Storage, which hosts – and allows users to manage – the database of operational indicators identified through inductive and deductive methodologies;
2. Validation, compounded by questionnaire-based assessment of indicators, enabling their classification in terms of relevance and calculability using the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM, Kuo and Chen, 2008) ;
3. Weighting, which provides DMs with an application of the Best-Worst Method (BWM, Rezaei 2015, 2020) to assign weights to the identified indicators and select Key Performance Indicators (KPIs);
4. Performance/Impact Assessment, which implements the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS, Hwang and Yoon, 1981) to derive a synthetic index representing the overall sustainability of the proposed design alternatives.

The innovative contribution of this research lies in its ability to integrate multiple qualitative and quantitative evaluation methodologies (as indicators, questionnaires, and multi-criteria analyses) within the comprehensible software IBTool. This integration aims to bridge the gap between academic research and practical applications, fostering a cultural and operational shift in the conception and management of urban transformation processes.To demonstrate the validity of the IBTool, we tested it in assessing the current level of sustainable development in three neighborhoods in the city of Cagliari (Italy).