An applied method for the assessment of sustainability of urban pilot projects

This paper is aimed at presenting a model, in the form of a template and a set of operating instructions, produced by the European Commission for the appraisal of sustainability of projects requesting financial support under the Urban Pilot Projects scheme. The template, along with the instructions for interpretation and usage, was handed over to a panel of external evaluators for them to reach consistent decisions across the European Union (EU). The proposed appraisal scheme is meant to jointly take into consideration the three main components of the sustainability concept, namely economic, social, and environmental, subjectively weighted to produce a single index. Strengths and weaknesses of the scheme are analyzed with the help of one of the appraised projects that happened to obtain EU financial support. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.