Twentieth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

This paper presents learnings from the CLEVER Cities London project which focuses on the evaluation of the changes in social dynamics in relation to the co-creation of NBS. This study builds on earlier research on indicator criteria sets to describe an approach to monitoring, learning and evaluation (MEL) that on the one hand, focuses on the use of a wide range of data types and on the other hand, considers the efficiency and capacity of the decision-makers to deal with data diversity. There is a tendency, when discussing monitoring and evaluation, to almost inevitably to concentrate most effort on KPIs. Though KPIs are critical and are being applied with increasing criteria and effectiveness, there is more to the story. Considering the context of a move towards more systemic use of co-creation and the consolidation of co-governance processes, important data is becoming more diverse in nature. It can range from lived experiences and observations, to heat maps, to urban social design graphics and more as well as multiple categories of KPI data. This case-study based research considers the advances CLEVER Cities London was able to achieve in diversifying its data sets and the challenges and opportunities associated with bringing together diverse knowledge types to improve the effectiveness of decision-making processes in the future.