Which kind of impact objectives should an urban forest project focus on? Which indicators should be selected?

In the following activity you are asked to choose 3–5 impact objectives, describe them and choose indicators – using the Co-Impact assessment tool – and build an impact measurement report for your own project or one of the UF case studies.

You should review your idea for an urban forest project following the video on making and measuring impact, and develop a “CO-Impact” generated report for your project listing the type of impact indicators you are hoping to use. If you don’t have a project of your own, you may choose one of the UF case studies to inspire your selection of indicators.

You should:

  1. first, review the main objectives of your own project (or the case study selected), and
  2. then restate your goals as objectives that may be managed through impact indicators. For example, if the objective is to create a ‘pocket forest’ to provide a recreational area for the local community, then an indicator-friendly objective would be: “plant and maintain a forest of up to XXX trees in a specific location that is visited by XXXX people per year on average in years 2025–2030”. Another example of a measurable impact indicator might be that property values in the vicinity of the forest increase. Once the goals are restated,
  3. you should work through the steps in the CO-Impact tool and generate the report for your project. Once you have generated your report (see an example impact assessment report (PDF) ),
  4. you should reflect on who you think the main audiences for this information might be and how you might go about measuring and reporting impact (possibly referring to the EVPA (2015) Practical Guide to Measuring & Monitoring Impact – see resource on the previous page).
  5. Finally, share your reflection on the forum here below.
{discussion:Week 5 / M2 - Impact report: share your reflection}