10.6092/issn.3034-8544/16733
The paper outlines the first Ph.D. Research outcomes begun at the Department of Architecture, Roma Tre University. It shows the first critical reasoning according to evaluation tools in the urban regeneration context and redevelopment of the existing built heritage. Law 338/2000 considers general criteria and related to functional and building sizing regarding the requirements of interventions and impact indicators, including social, environmental, and financial impact indicators. According to the final goal of the research, which is the implementation of a multi-criteria and inclusive evaluation tool capable to add all dimension of sustainability and supporting the design process, the contribution exposes, first results regarding the reading of some sets of multi-disciplinary indicators related to university residences and of some sets of indicators related to monitoring them ex-post.
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Fabrizio Finucci
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Urbana
Regenerative Effect
From Evaluation to Monitoring: Multicriteria Indicators and Assessments in Urban Regeneration Triggered by University Residences
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Fabrizio Finucci
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Roma Tre University
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From Evaluation to Monitoring: Multicriteria Indicators and Assessments in Urban Regeneration Triggered by University Residences
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                                                            URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024               49




From Evaluation to Monitoring: Multi-
criteria Indicators and Assessments in
Urban Regeneration Triggered by
University Residences
PEER REVIEWED


Fabrizio Finucci

Roma Tre University

fabrizio.finucci@uniroma3.it

Antonella G. Masanotti1

Roma Tre University

antonellagiulia.masanotti@uniroma3.it


1.       Urban Regeneration and University Housing.
Academic training paths, and the related learning and educational
processes, have been profoundly influenced in recent years by the
increasingly key role that university housing takes on in student life.
Because these facilities, virtuous processes are triggered involving new
forms of socialization, a greater propensity for sharing, increased youth
empowerment,2 an improved sense of responsibility, good attitude to
dialogue3 and, eventually, students develop a greater disposition to
diversity.4 The pattern of life triggered, characterized by sharing and
interactions allows students' social capital to be promoted and enhanced.5
The impact of the only presence of universities in urban areas consists
precisely in the ability to trigger stable relationships and synergies
between territorial actors,6 the improvement of local economies,7 and, in
addition, the ability to promote knowledge networks and economic


1
  Corresponding author.
2
   Maria Stella Agnoli, Spazi, identità, relazioni. Indagine sulla convivenza multiculturale nelle
residenze universitarie (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2010).
3
   Nazirah Zainul Abidin and Nurul Najib, “Student Residential Satisfaction in Research
Universities,” Journal of Facilities Management 9, no. 3 (2011): 200–212.
4
  Gary R Pike, “The Differential Effects of on-and Off-campus Living Arrangements on Students’
Openness to Diversity,” Naspa Journal 39, no. 4 (2002): 283-299.
5
  Jules Pretty and Hugh Ward, “Social Capital and the Environment,” World development 2, (2001):
209-227.
6
   Margaret O’Mara, “Beyond the Town and Gown: University Economic Engagement and the
Legacy of the Urban Crisis,” The Journal of Technology Transfer 37 (2012): 234-250.
7
  Joan W. Woffard, Urban Universities: Rhetoric, Reality, and Conflict (Washington, DC, USA: US
Department of Health, Education &Welfare, 1970).


                                                                        Copyright 2024 The Author(s)
                                                    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.3034-8544/16733                    Attribution 4.0 International License
                                                               URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024             50



competitiveness.8 Urban development can strongly be characterized by
the strength that the university has in a context to settle specific facilities
such as hospitals, sports facilities, libraries, or others.9 In addition to
these facilities, university residences also represent an opportunity to
trigger, for the entire urban community as well as for students, a virtuous
process that implements the regeneration of existing urban fabrics
through densification strategies, with the possibility of developing a "new
model of diffuse university campus".10 According to Bellini et al.,11
students is a micro-community with some problems in common with the
local community—difficulties of integration and cultural understanding,
language barriers, distance from home—and other more original
characteristics that distinguish them as high cultural profile and young,
homogeneous age group.
The paper considers urban regeneration in terms of multidisciplinary
research that includes urban planning, urban design, housing,
transportation, economics, community development, and sustainability
studies12. General principles for urban regeneration are widely
recognized, but urban regeneration programs must always be adapted to
their specific geographic contexts and the urban development patterns
adopted by local governments.13 Law 338/2000 "Provisions on housing and
residences for university students" provides for co-financing by the state
for interventions aimed at the construction of housing and residences for
university students and is configured, as a strategic tool capable of
promoting regeneration policies, conceiving the university and the city as
an integrated system, with the aim of providing housing for students and,
simultaneously, services and activities intended for users of the piece of
city in which it is grafted,14 actuating lines of intervention also aimed at
the redevelopment of the existing building stock. The paper presents the
first results of a doctoral research that considers multi-criteria
assessment methods both as a tool to support decision-making problem
in urban planning and regeneration in terms of interfering dimensions
and as a monitoring tool. The second section sets out the principles of Law

8
  Gar Alperovitz, Steve Dubb and Tedd Howard, “The Next Wave: Building University Engagement
for the 21st Century,” The Good Society 17, no. 2 (2008):69-75.
9
  Janet Bercovitz and Maryann Feldman, “Entpreprenerial Universities and Technology Transfer:
A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Knowledge-based Economic Development,” The
journal of Technology Transfer 31, (2006): 175-188.
10
   Maria Argenti, Fabio Cutroni, Maura Pecroco, and Giulia Santarelli, “Un Campus Universitario
‘Diffuso’,” in Residenze e Servizi per Studenti Universitari, eds. Romano Del Nord, Adolfo F.L. Baratta
and Claudio Piferi (Florence: Tesis, 2016), 151–62.
11
   Oscar. E. Bellini, Matteo Gambaro and Martino Mocchi, “Living and Learning: A New Identity
for Student Housing in City Suburbs,” in Regeneration of the Built Environment from a Circular
Economy Perspective, eds. Stefano Della Torre, Sara Cattaeno, Camilla Lenzi and Alessandra Zanelli
(Gewerbestrasse: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2020), 99-109.
12
    Michael E. Leary and John McCarthy, “Introduction Urban Regeneration a Global
phenomenon,” in The Routledge Companion Tourban Regeneration, eds. Michael E. Leary and John
McCarthy (New York: Routledge, 2013).
13
   Reinout Kleinhans, “Housing Policies and Regeneration,” International Encyclopedia of Housing
and Home, (2012): 590–95.
14
   Francesco Musco, Rigenerazione Urbana e Sostenibilità (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2009).
                                                                  URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024             51



338/200 and the strategies adopted for social inclusion and urban
regeneration; the third section introduces the issue of decision-making
processes and support through multi-criteria evaluations; the fourth
section proposes a reading of indicators for post-operam monitoring
processes; and the fourth and final section regards the concluding
reflections.

2.       Law 338/2000: an Urban Regeneration and Social Inclusion Tool.

In response to the imbalance between demand and supply, in the early
2000s, Italian government provided funding for the construction of
student accommodation with Law 338/2000; later, with the issuing of
decrees establishing the procedures and formalities for requesting
funding, the law identified the qualitative and quantitative standards of
the projects.15 Now, in its 5th Call for implementation16 (2021), the law has
partially solved the imbalance between demand and supply;17 almost
twenty years after the 1st call was issued, despite more than 200 design
proposal put into operation and about 30,000 new and upgraded
accommodation places,18 it fails to match the European situation: about
2.5% of available accommodation places in relation to the student
population against 11% in Germany, 15% in France and 34% in England.
Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the student
population by forcing them to deal with changes related to everyday life
with significant repercussions in social, economic and welfare-related
terms.19 Meaningful ties, relationships between students, colleagues and
teachers are issues that influence the educational pathway.20
Relationships and situations that, due to the pandemic situation, have not
occurred and that strongly affect out-of-town students who, in addition to
being engaged in educational activities, build a network of relationships
that strongly affect health and the perception of well-being.21




15
   Adolfo F. L. Baratta, “Students Housing: Functional Model Quality,” in Research Tools for Design,
eds. Nicoletta Setola (Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2011), 35–38.
16
   From the Italian: V Bando di attuazione.
17
   The 2018 ISTAT Census shows that 591,507 students were carrying out their academic activities
in places other than their Province or Metropolitan City of residence; 35 percent of students
(considering the 1,720,760 students enrolled in the 2018/2019 academic year) represent the
potential demand for university housing.
18
   Claudio Piferi, La qualità dell’abitare a servizio del diritto allo studio. quaderni di opera 30 anni al
servizio degli studenti (Trento: Edizioni Opera Universitaria, 2021).
19
   Aleksander Aristovnik, Damijana Keržič, Dejan Ravšelj, Nina Tomaževič and Lan Umek,
“Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Life of Higher Education Students: A Global Perspective,”
Sustainability 12, no. 20 (2020): 1-34.
20
   Giancarlo Gasperoni, “Studio universitario, orientamenti valoriali, consumi culturali,” Rassegna
Italiana di Sociologia 1, (2000): 109–30.
21
   Andrea Amerio, Andrea Brambilla, Alessandro Morganti, Andrea Aguglia, Davide Bianchi,
Francesca Santi and Luigi Costantini, “Covid-19 Lockdown: Housing Built Environment’s Effects
on Mental Health,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 16
(2020): 1-10.
                                                              URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            52



2.1 The 5th Call of Implementation of the Law 338/2000.

The 5th Call for implementation of the law represents an opportunity not
only for the increased provision of residential facilities for students, but
also for the urban regeneration of the contexts in which the projects are
included and the further social inclusion by re-weaving the community
networks dispersed by the pandemic. The current call, which re-proposes
the goal of enhancing the public heritage that can be used for the
conversion of buildings and for the redevelopment of urban areas that are
sometimes degraded and a source of social criticality22, provides for co-
financing by the state for the recovery and construction of housing and
residences for university students. The residences, in addition to the
necessary conditions for the student's stay in the university city, must
promote the social and cultural integration of students in the urban
context in which they are proposed. In order to facilitate attendance and
the attainment of the degree, as well as to improve the student's quality of
life, the 5th Call for implementation provides indications both for
functional areas dedicated to residences and for functional areas
dedicated to teaching, research, support and cultural and recreational
activities. The criteria for project requirements—in addition to those
concerning the general functional and building dimensions and the
requirements of the environmental units—concern environmental
compatibility, integration with the city and services, the coexistence of
individuality and sociality levels in fruition, the integration of
information and multimedia technologies, environmental orientation,
maintenance, and management (Ministerial Decree, 1256/2021).
The criteria for project requirements -in addition to those for general
functional and building sizing and environmental unit requirements-
concern (Ministerial Decree, 1256/2021):
-       Environmental compatibility, whereby new buildings-and as far as
possible also for extraordinary maintenance, rehabilitation, or
renovation of existing buildings-must consider the principles for
environmental protection from the perspective of Minimum
Environmental Criteria and conforming all types of design proposal from
the principle of Do No Significant Harm.23 In addition, projects will be
eligible for funding only if they document the achievement of four of six
environmental criteria in the standard.
-       Integration with the city and services, whereby newly constructed,
rehabilitated, or renovated buildings must integrate with their
surroundings.
-       Coexistence of levels of individuality and sociality in fruition,
whereby the residence must consider the individual need of the student

22
    Romano Del Nord, “Processi e Metodi Innovativi per La Promozione Della Qualità
Architettonica Delle Residenze Universitarie,” in Residenze e Servizi per Studenti Universitari, eds.
Romano Del Nord, Adolfo F. L. Baratta, and C. Piferi (Florence: Tesis, 2016), 13-16.
23
   Environmental objectives of the DNSH Assessment under EU Regulation No. 2020/852.
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           53



and that of sociality through the distribution of semi-private and semi-
collective spaces.
-      Integration of information and multimedia technologies, whereby
buildings of new construction - and as far as possible also for
extraordinary maintenance, rehabilitation, or renovation of existing
buildings - the integration of information and multimedia technologies
should be considered to enable management of services in IoT optics.
-      Environmental orientation, whereby environmental units must be
able to be easily recognized to improve their orientation not only for
students but also for external users.
-      Maintenance and management, whereby the residence hall must
meet the requirements of maintainability and durability.

Design proposal for co-financing can also be entrusted to private entities
under construction and management or service concessions, and are
distinguished into (Ministerial Decree, 1256/2021):
a1) Design proposals of extraordinary maintenance, recovery, building
and urban restructuring and restoration, including the removal of
architectural barriers and adaptation based on current provisions on
seismic, hygiene and safety of real estate used or to be used as university
residences.
a2) energy efficiency design proposals for pre-existing university
residences.
b) demolition and reconstruction work, transformation, expansion, and
completion of existing real estate, including new construction work only
for existing university campuses.
c) acquisition of buildings to be used as university residences, within
existing real estate considering probable future transformation.

         Table 1 | Summary of the aspects exposed on the 5th Call of the Law 338/2000.
 Aims                    General criteria         Sizing criteria          Type of proposal

 (i) protection and      (i) environmental        (i) residential          (a1) extraordinary
 facilitation of study   compatibility            functions                maintenance,
 attendance and          (ii) integration with    (ii) service functions   rehabilitation,
 degree attainment       the city and services                             building and urban
 (ii) social and         (iii) co-presence of the                          renewal and
 cultural integration    levels of individuality                           restoration work
 at the location         and sociality of                                  (a2) energy efficiency
                         fruition                                          design proposals
                         (iv) integration of                               (b) design proposals of
                         information and                                   demolition and
                         multimedia                                        reconstruction,
                         technologies                                      transformation,
                         (v) environmental                                 expansion and
                         orientation                                       completion
                         (vi) maintenance and                              (c) purchase
                         management
                                                              URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024                 54



The 5th Call introduces impact indicators, initially higher in number than
what is present today, to which it was chosen to reduce it due to the
reduced timeline for submitting applications for co-funding (Tables 2, 3
and 4) to be included through a computerized template when filling out
the application for funding (Decree, 168/2022):
-      Social impact indicators, including measurements on demand,
merit, community, and inclusivity.
-      Environmental impact indicators, including measurements on
energy sustainability, energy efficiency, material resource consumption
reduction and sustainability.
-      Financial impact indicators, including measurements on the type
of financing, speed of execution and management.


                                 Table 2 | Social impact indicators.
                     Indicator             Measure

                     Demand                Demand for on-site accommodation            a. p. / a. p.
                                           places (a.y. 2019-2020) / supply of on-site
                                           accommodation places (November 1st,
                                           2020)

                     Merit                 Number accommodation places for              a. p. / a. p.
 Social impact
                                           deserving students / total
 indicators
                                           accommodation places

                     Inclusivity           Number of accommodation places               a. p. / a. p.
                                           reserved for students with disabilities /
                                           total accommodation places

                     Collectivity          Facilities surface (FA2+FA3+FA4) / total m2 / m2
                                           surface (FA1+FA2+FA3+FA4)


                          Table 3 | Environmental impact indicators.
                     Indicator             Measure

                     Energy                Use of renewable energy (solar, wind,           0; 1; 2;
                     Sustainability        water, geothermal, biomass)                     3; 4; 5;

                     Energy efficiency Energy class for new buildings and class           +1; +5; +4;
 Environmental                         increase for design proposals on the               +3; +2; +1;
 impact indicators                     existing one

                     Reduction of      Material from reuse or recycling of                 m3 / m3
                     material resource materials and products/total material
                     consumption       used

                     Sustainability        Use of sustainable technical solutions          Yes / No


                             Table 4 | Financial impact indicators.
                     Indicator             Measure

 Financial impact    Funding A             Third party funding / overall funding              €/€
 indicators
                     Financing B           Regional or autonomous province                    €/€
                                           funding / overall funding
                                                               URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024             55




                        Speed of            Presence of executive design level and         Si / No
                        execution           administrative approvals

                        Management          Previous experience of the subject in       0-5, 6-10, 11-
                                            managing university facilities                20, 21-30,
                                                                                             >30


2.2 The 5th Call of Implementation of the Law 338/2000 Evaluation Criteria.

The criteria for evaluating proposals (Decree, 168/2022) must consider the
objectives of the call, including: a) project effectiveness; b) project
efficiency; c) project utility; d) project sustainability and durability; and
e) impact indicators. The evaluation process implemented in the Law
employs impact indicators and evaluation criteria (Table 5 and 6) for the
construction of the ranking aimed at allocating funding. This method, on
a multi-criteria basis, provides transparency, rationality and traceability
to the project selection process. In this way, the 5th Call results such as
regulatory tool capable of incentivizing not only the housing form of
university residences, but a stimulus for interventions in the
rehabilitation of the existing building stock and urban regeneration.
The vocation to urban regeneration is also corroborated by the types of
design proposals upon completion of the 4th Call (2016), which shows that
60 percent of the projects accepted for funding since the 1st Call —about
200 out of 320—, contemplate design proposals on the existing heritage,
including 128 interventions—completed or under implementation—in the
field of building heritage rehabilitation and 72 interventions of ordinary,
extraordinary maintenance and energy efficiency24.

                Table 5 | Rating title expressed by the Call for design proposals A2.
     Typology           Rating title                                                    Score
     proposal                                                                           (max)

                        (a) Requirement accommodation places and indicators of          20
                        social impact

     A2                 (b) Co-financing and cost-sharing                               10

                        (c) Supply of accommodation places                              10

                        (d) Quality technical solutions, energy efficiency              60


            Table 6 | Rating title expressed by the Call for design proposals A1, B, and C.
     Typology           Rating title                                                    Score
     proposal                                                                           (max)

                        (a) Consistency with ministerial guidance                       10
     A1
                        (b) Housing place requirement, correspondence to                20
     B
                        indicators of social impact
     C
                        (c) Quality and indicators of environmental impact              20


24
  Roberto Bologna, “Student Housing in Architectural Renovation and Urban Regeneration
Project,” Techne 24 (2022): 198–206.
                                                               URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024   56




                        (d) Financial sharing and indicator of financial impact       10

                        (e) Co-financing from the regions                             15

                        (f) Work on buildings of historical interest                  15

                        (g) Applicant's experience                                    10

                        (a) Requirement accommodation places and indicators of        20
                        social impact

     A2                 (b) Co-financing and cost-sharing                             10

                        (c) Supply of accommodation places                            10

                        (d) Quality technical solutions, energy efficiency            60




3.         Multi-criteria Evaluation as Decision Support Tool.
Urban regeneration sets as an aspiration an interfering reading of the
different aspects, establishing the need to make choices based on the
alternatives available. Indeed, territories are in constant transformation,
subject to unpredictable changes, generated by an aggregate of
intentions, projects and actions dependent on individual or collective
wills, whose decisions overlap, contradict or deform. In these models, the
decision is identified as a process delineated by interconnected actions;
the activity that the individual performs with regard to an evaluation is
based on an abstract process (Table 7) that is not necessarily stated,
therefore, in the context of urban transformations and due to the
numerous actors involved in the decision-making process, the complexity
to be faced may be that of the non-comparability of objectives. Multi-
criteria evaluation methods include a family of techniques that
simultaneously consider different areas of the decision-making problem
on the basis of a set of criteria. The methodology is configured within pre-
determined alternative hypotheses or the introductory step requires the
identification of the objective, which may be a preferred choice at the end
of the evaluation process—as in the case of project selection—or an
understanding of a problem, such as in the case of monitoring. The first
step specifies the possible alternatives to solving the problem, the stage
at which "scenario building" takes place25. The second step identifies the
criteria on which the final decision depends; the quantification and
measurement of the criteria are closely related to the application domain
in which the problem is grafted. The third step includes the estimation of
the weights to be assigned to each criterion, either based on relevance to
the decision maker or on the basis of logical mathematical function,
resulting in the fourth step, i.e., the measurement of alternatives in
relation to the criteria. The very nature of the decision-making problem
confronts units of measurement relevant to the criteria being considered.
Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a fifth step and normalize on the

25
     David Aaker, Strategic Market Management (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001).
                                                               URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024              57



basis of comparable scales by applying mathematical formulas, thus
making it possible to relate the scores to the previously assigned weights.
The ranking of alternatives that is obtained depends on the way in which
the evaluator assigns weights to the evaluation criteria, representing,
therefore, the point of view of the evaluation. Closing the evaluation
process is a final step, a sensitivity analysis that tests the robustness of the
results.

                                Table 7 | Steps of a multi-criteria analysis.
     Phase                                Description
     (0) Objective identification         It is the introduction to the decision problem in that it
                                          requires the identification of the objective, problem and
                                          evaluation.
     (1) Alternatives identification      Specification of the possible alternatives that provide
                                          different solutions to the problem.
     (2) Evaluation criteria              Specification of the criteria on which the final decision
     identification                       depends, which includes information about the indicator,
                                          measurement scale and objective function.
     (3) Estimation of the weights to Estimation of the weights to be assigned to each criterion,
     be assigned to the criteria          which can be on the basis of relevance to the decision
                                          maker (by ordering) or on the basis of logical
                                          mathematical function (cardinal).
     (4) Measuring the performance Each alternative will describe a performance based on
     of the alternative for each          each criterion.
     criterion
     (5) Normalization                    Mathematical operation that allows measurement on the
                                          basis of different comparable scales.
     (6) Ranking                          Consists of the ranking of priorities among the pre-posed
                                          alternatives.
     (7) Sensitivity analysis             Final operation designed to check the robustness of the
                                          result, which may involve variation in the assignment of
                                          weight values or variation in the normalization function.


The techniques—simple or complex—are manifold26 but, but there are
several classifications of them in the literature27 (Table 8). The first
considers the generation of alternatives: a) multi-criteria analysis, in
which the problem is carried out with a set of finite alternatives, to which
the objective is to identify a scale of preferability in a set of finite
alternatives; b) multi-objective techniques, in which the decision maker
responds to a set of infinite alternatives, the decision maker can be
defined as the planner who chooses the best possible alternative based on
the objectives set. The second classification considers the nature of the
outcome: a) deterministic in nature; b) probabilistic in nature.

                                  Table 8 | Techniques classification
     Classification                    Description
     1. Generation of alternatives     (a) multi-criteria analysis
                                       (b) multi-objective techniques


26
   Mika Marttunen, Judit Lienert and Valerie Belton, “Structuring Problems for Multi-Criteria
Decision Analysis in Practice: A Literature Review of Method Combinations,” European Journal of
Operational Research 263, no.1 (2017): 1-17.
27
   Pietro Rostirolla, La Fattibilità Economico-Finanziaria. Metodi e Applicazioni (Napoles: Liguori
Editore, 1998).
                                                              URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            58



     2. Nature of the result          (a) deterministic
                                      (b) probabilistic


In general, the evaluation methods described above use of mathematical
models and operations that identify a preferable alternative, surpassing
the concept of a perfect alternative, confirming the idea that there may
be a plurality of needs to be met depending on the design proposal.
In relation to the application of these methods to recent residences, they
attempt to construct a ranking of criteria, sub-criteria and indicators for
a sustainable evaluation of them. The methodology consists of a
reiterative process involving the collection of data from the literature,
interviews with students, selection and ranking of criteria, validation of
the data through interviews, refinement of the criteria and definition of
the evaluation model. The hierarchical structure is composed of three
categories28: 1) spatial configuration: covers the characteristics of
bedrooms, common areas, furniture, accessibility and location,
proximity to the university, public transport and services; 2)
environmental quality and well-being: criteria related to air quality and
thermal, visual and acoustic comfort, etc.; 3) housing management: is
composed of the sub-criteria related to housing services, energy, water,
waste and costs.
Similarly, Malaysian research29 selects a set of criteria for the sustainable
assessment of green university buildings. More specifically, they use the
Analytic Hierarchy Process technique in order to structure the
hierarchical evaluation model, which consists of the following criteria:
indoor environmental quality, energy efficiency, site planning and
sustainable management, reusable or recycled materials, and water
collection and recovery; each is followed by its own sub-criteria.
In the above-mentioned application cases, the criteria of environmental
quality and well-being—in the former—, and of housing management and
energy efficiency—in the latter—appear to be the most relevant within the
hierarchical evaluation model.
A further application case developed in Nigeria30, aims to select the
preferred housing solution-taking into account the student's point of
view-from four alternatives: 1) traditional on-campus housing, whereby
students can easily reach university services; 2) off-campus, university-
managed housing; 3) off-campus, university-rented housing; and 4) off-
campus, privately rented housing. The evaluation takes into account the
views of two decision makers for each alternative described above and is

28
   Shady Attia, Pierre Alphonsine, Mohamed Amer and Guirec Ruellan, “Towards a European
Rating System for Sustainable Student Housing: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and a Multi-
Criteria Assessment Approach,” Environmental and Sustainability Indicators 7, (2020): 1-12.
29
   Elaheh Yadegaridehkordi and Mehrbakhsh Nilashi, “Moving towards Green University: A
Method of Analysis Based on Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach to Assess Sustainability
Indicators,” International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology 19, no. 9 (2022): 8207-30.
30
   Hammad Baba, Joel Musa Dabo, Ali Garba Rishi, Dabo Hammad and Isaac Ishaku Ayuba,
“Criteria for the Selection of Students Accommodation Model in Nigeria Tertiary Institutions
Using Analytic Hierarchy Process,” Academic Research International 4, no. 5 (2013): 550-556.
                                                              URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024          59



done through a hierarchical AHP model of pairwise comparison of
alternatives based on the criteria: a) proximity of academic services;
studied discipline; maintenance cost; and safety.

                        Table 9 | Summary of the overexposed experiences.
  Reference             Technique    Evaluation goal         Point of view      Macro-criteria
                                     Select a priority       Students           Spatial
                                     among criteria for                         configuration
                                     choosing university                        Environmental
  Attia et al. (2020)                housing                                    quality and
                                                                                well-being
                                                                                Housing
                                                                                management
                                     Select a priority         Experts in the   Indoor
                                     among criteria for        application      environmental
                                     evaluating green          field            quality
                                     university buildings                       Energy
                                                                                efficiency
                                                                                Site planning
  Yadegaridehkor                                                                and
  di and Nilashi        AHP                                                     sustainable
  (2022)                                                                        management
                                                                                Reuse or
                                                                                recycled
                                                                                materials
                                                                                Water
                                                                                collection and
                                                                                recovery
                                     Choice of university      Students         Academic
                                     housing preferred                          Proximity
                                     from: (1) Traditional                      Student
                                     on campus                                  discipline
  Baba Hammad
                        AHP          accommodation                              Maintenance
  et al. (2013)
                                     (2) Off-campus school                      cost
                                     managed
                                                                                Students
                                     (3) Off campus leased
                                                                                security
                                     (4) Off-campus private


The three approaches described above, suggest possible evaluative
applications for university residences and for the construction of
indicator sets that are also useful in terms of urban regeneration, again
suggesting a supporting tool on a multi-criteria basis.

4. Conclusions: from Project Selection to a Monitoring Process.

Law 338/2000 model refers to an evaluation based on criteria mostly
concerning project characteristics. The measurement of the regenerative
effect triggered on an urban fabric by a university student residence is not
an objective of the Law 338/2000 process and the latter, in fact, does not
incorporate criteria and indicators for this purpose. This is consistent
with the fact that it is not in the planning stages of design proposals that
the criteria for monitoring effects can be established, since planning
instruments fail to crystallize in a pre-vision processes and
interrelationships that are evolutionary, unpredictable, and creative in
                                                            URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           60



nature31. The monitoring of regenerative effects—environmental, social
and economic—should be undertaken in successive stages, in view of the
fact that the effects of actions may take time to emerge and may present
themselves with such discontinuities that certain thresholds must be
reached before significant and measurable impacts occur32. However, it
would be useful to subject the outcomes of policies to verification of their
economic, social and environmental sustainability in order to produce
feedback effects capable of modifying the plan or program that produced
them33. Among the many studies to measure the sustainability of urban
regeneration, the indicator system approach is most widely used34 and the
literature presents many applications on different systems. There are
applications that consider the measurement of quality-of-life
improvement35; others that employ sets based on five aspects36 such as
economy and labor, resource use, land use and buildings, transport and
mobility, and community benefits; and finally, others cover
environmental, financial, socio-economic and liveability aspects37.
However, the various systems or sets of indicators are not without
criticism, such as the subjectivity in the choice of indicators or the strict
adherence of the set used to the local context or the project being
evaluated38, which does not make the evaluation process replicable and
comparable. A monitoring process should be based on a broad, non-
redundant system of indicators capable of describing and making
comparable the different interventions and the plurality of effects and
impacts that can be triggered. At present, this research is reviewing the
reference literature in order to select—and possibly modify—indicators
classified by environmental-urban, social and economic dimensions. The
ultimate aim is the implementation of a set of criteria that, subjected to
due experimental verification, will become a useful tool for measuring
the regenerative effects of a university residence and for comparing
projects. An initial list drawn up in the course of the research—
provisional, non-exhaustive and still being evaluated—is shown in Table
10 below.

31
   Grazia Napoli, “La Valutazione Multicriteriale Nella Pianificazione Territoriale: Riflessioni
Teoriche Su Un Caso Applicativo,” AESTIMUM 32, (2009): 861–86.
32
   Peter Tyler, Colin Warnock, Allan Provins and Bruno Lanz, “Valuing the Benefits of Urban
Regeneration,” Urban Studies 50, no. 1 (2013): 169–90.
33
   Napoli, “La Valutazione Multicriteriale”, 861–86.
34
   Yi Peng, Yani Lai, Xuewen Li and Xiaoling Zhang, “An Alternative Model for Measuring the
Sustainability of Urban Regeneration: The Way Forward,” Journal of Cleaner Production 109, (2015):
76–83.
35
   Mee Kam NG, “Quality of Life Perceptions and Directions for Urban Regeneration in Hong
Kong,” Social Indicators Research 71, no.3 (2005); 441-465.
36
   Lesley Hemphill, Jim Berry and Stanley McGreal, “An Indicator-Based Approach to Measuring
Sustainable Urban Regeneration Performance: Part 1, Conceptual Foundations and
Methodological Framework,” Urban Studies 41, no. 4 (2004): 725–55.
37
   G. Christopher Wedding and Crawford-Brown Douglas, “Measuring Site-Level Success in
Brownfield Redevelopments: A Focus on Sustainability and Green Building,” Journal of
Environmental Management 85, no. 2 (2007): 483–95.
38
   Helen Wei Zheng, Geoffrey Qiping Shen and Hao Wang, “A Review of Recent Studies on
Sustainable Urban Renewal,” Habitat International 41 (2014): 272–79.
                                                            URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           61




  Table 10 | Set of criteria for measuring the regenerative effects of a university residence
Aspect        Criteria                                  Quantitative        Qualitative

              Increase in the number of businesses      V

              Increase in the number of jobs            V

              Increase in the market values of real
                                                        V
              estate
Economic
              Increase in average incomes               V

              Increase in the number of new
                                                        V
              businesses operating in the area

              Increased perception of overall
                                                                            V
              community well-being

              Increase in public investment

              Increase in the number of cultural
              activities present (cinemas, theaters     V
              and libraries)

              Increase in the number of associations
                                                                 V
              or third-sector entities

              Improved overall satisfaction and
                                                                                     V
              sense of place

              Improved shared and collective
Sociale                                                                              V
              enjoyment of public space

              Improved efficiency of community
                                                                                     V
              networks

              Increased access to education services             V

              Increased perception of the level of
                                                                                     V
              quality of services

              Reduction in petty crime and theft                 V

              Increased areas of green areas (parks
              and urban green, public green and         V
              sports green)

              Increase in the number of public
                                                                 V
              transportation reaching the target area

              Increase in the number of number of
              health care activities present
Urbano-       (pharmacies, health garrisons, elderly             V
ambientale    care day care centers and disabled
              care day care centers)

              Increased areas of pedestrian areas                V

              Increase in the areas devoted to
                                                                 V
              neighborhood services

              Improving the surface area ratio
                                                                 V
              between public and private spaces
                                                     URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024   62




             Increase in the number of redeveloped
                                                          V
             buildings

             Improvement in the overall quality of
                                                                             V
             public space

             Increase in the surfaces of public
                                                          V
             parking lots


The paper considered the issues of urban regeneration in a
multidisciplinary context, the strategic tool of Law 338/2000 that can
conceive of the city and university services as an organic system of
functions and integrated: in approaching the above-described issues,
decision-making processes and support through multi-criteria
evaluations were considered. The contribution exposed the first results of
a doctoral research regarding a reading of some sets of indicators, not
only for the ex-ante choice of projects ex-ante but for a hypothetical
process of monitoring them ex-post. The effectiveness over time of a
university residence hall project that aspires to trigger regeneration
processes can be measured through such an approach, which is still being
studied. The matrix thus composed—projects by indicators—is not aimed
at ranking research, but at building a framework. A useful "dashboard"
for monitoring, in which even the simple comparison of the effectiveness
of an intervention, criterion by criterion, becomes a tool for critical
analysis of the project/context relationship, capable of returning
feedback that is in turn useful for reorienting subsequent intervention
strategies.
The next steps in the research will involve the development of a
comprehensive evaluation framework that includes—in addition to
several sets of criteria each suitable for each phase—, a system of capable
of evaluating projects ex ante, in the planning and selection phase,
correcting their course with in itinere evaluations in the implementation
phase, and in conclusion monitoring their regenerative effects in the ex-
post phase.


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