Abstract
The implementation of sustainability assessment tools for Public Administrations (PAs) requires strong alignment with local contexts to ensure effectiveness. The localisation of indicators is particularly relevant in the context of Neighbourhood Sustainability Assessment Tools (NSATs), which play a key role in measuring and advancing urban sustainability with a particular emphasis on SDG 11’s targets. Nevertheless, global experiences highlight the need to select indicators that reflect local priorities and features.
This article is a contribution to a Research Project of National Relevance (PRIN) – referred to as GLOSSA (A “GLOcal” knowledge System for Sustainability Assessment of urban projects) – which, among its several objectives, aims to provide PAs with an impact monitoring framework for quantifying and certifying the performances of funded projects at urban scale. The proposed approach focuses on local data scalability for sustainability assessment and facilitates the application of meaningful spatial methods to derive suitable proxy-indicators through GIS. This study first attempts to conceptualise a quali-quantitative evaluation methodology that highlights different strategies for indicator selection and implementation within the scope of Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS). The research methodology includes a proposal of a spatial impact evaluation framework to: (i) set criteria for Key Performance Indicators (KPI) classification (ii) highlight the relationships among SDG11 indicators and local plan strategy portfolios; (iii) define spatial modeling rules to derive values of context-based indicators. Preliminary findings have shown that the integration of NSATs with SDSS contributes to more effective sustainability assessment addressing specific challenges in the urban setting of Bacoli, Campania Region (Italy). Indeed, these hybrid tools have proven useful in assessing policy impacts on different areas of concern, such as land use, sustainable mobility, social inclusion, and cultural heritage preservation. Concurrently, contextualised indicators enhance the relevance of evolutionary evaluation processes, making them more applicable to real-world policy-making by strengthening cooperation among specialists, academics, and PAs.

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