An integrated assessment framework for the requalification of districts facing urban and social decline

The ecologic issue highlighted by the Encyclical letter Laudato Si’ (Francesco 2015) is a complex problem involving environmental, economic and social aspects. The aim of this paper is to propose an Integrated Assessment (IA) framework based on the systematic application of the Stakeholders’ Analysis (SA), the Strategic Choice Approach (SCA), the MACBETH Multicriteria Analysis and the Discounted Cash Flow Analysis (DCFA) to support the decision process related to the requalification of districts facing urban and social decline. In the proposed approach, the SA is used to determine the key actors involved in an urban and territorial transformation. While the SCA is used to identify potentialities and constraints of an urban area to define a master plan, the MACBETH method is applied to compare various alternative projects, and the DCFA aims at evaluating the economic performance of the proposed intervention. As a case study, the IA framework has been applied to a simulated academic process for the transformation of the Tür und Taxis district near the Molenbeek district in Brussels (Belgium). During the research, we interfaced with many real stakeholders involved in the transformation of those areas.