Cities are under increasing pressure to tackle biodiversity loss, extreme heat, flooding, air pollution, and unequal access to green spaces. Yet decisions about where to protect, enhance, or create green infrastructure are often made without consistent local evidence.

This challenge is becoming even more urgent as the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Nature Restoration Regulation drive action to restore urban ecosystems. Through National Restoration Plans and Urban Nature Plans, cities will need to translate ambitious policy goals into targeted, measurable local interventions. The ESPON GILL project, developed under Action 1 of the Greening Cities Partnership, helped address this need. 

The project, led by TECNALIA Research & Innovation, was developed in cooperation with the Institute for Urban Excellence and the European Forest Institute. Together, we developed a methodology to quantify the demand for Green Infrastructure at the Local Level (GILL). 

The methodology helps cities understand the distribution of urban nature, assess the demand for ecosystem services provided by green infrastructure, and identify where green infrastructure is most needed. For this purpose, ESPON GILL produced: a standardised methodology including a flexible, evidence-based assessment framework, case study reports with insights from the cities in which the methodology was tested, an interactive user manual for the methodology implementation, and a case-study dashboard to support informed planning and investment.

This document, the ESPON GILL Final Report, not only presents the technical methodology, but also highlights the importance of evidence-based planning in supporting local authorities to align green infrastructure investments with local needs and wider European policy objectives. By helping identify where green infrastructure can deliver the greatest benefits, the methodology aims to support more informed planning processes and strengthen the evidence base for future investment decisions.