Sustainability assessment tools for urban design at neighbourhood scale

Integrating assessment tools in the decision making process of urban design may contribute to tackle the defining challenges of sustainability that our cities face. The research works on practical tools to compare alternatives taking into account sustainability criteria that incorporate quantitative as well as qualitative assessment. Effective assessment tools that take into account socioeconomic criteria are required to push forward integrated urban planning policies that can shape interventions at neighbourhood scale. This paper presents the conclusions after the review of assessment tools available in the European context. These tools are focussed mainly on delivering reports and guidelines, list of indicators and best practices; besides those reports, also some methodologies and specific technologies have been developed. Nevertheless there is a lack of practical, useful and open source tools to assess urban sustainability of urban small scale interventions.