--- title: CG – Assessment instruments description: "# **BeCom Community Gardening – Recommended Evaluation and Assessment Tools** --- In the context of the BeCom project one of the core goals is to build capacities in sustainable, community garden practices across partner communities. To ensure that learning, application,…" url: "https://becom4.eu/becomdocs/assessment-instruments/" updated: "2026-10-02" category: Assessment tools --- # CG – Assessment instruments # **BeCom Community Gardening – Recommended Evaluation and Assessment Tools** --- In the context of the BeCom project one of the core goals is to build capacities in sustainable, community garden practices across partner communities. To ensure that learning, application, and impact are effectively monitored and supported, we propose a three-phase evaluation scheme for Work Package 1 (Community Garden). This three-phase evaluation is designed to achieve complementary aims: 1. **Knowledge Assessment**: To measure the extent to which participants have absorbed the conceptual knowledge and theoretical content contained in the WP1 manual or training materials. 2. **Self-Evaluation: T**o empower participants to critically assess a concrete building (or planned building) in their community, applying what they learned to real contexts, reflecting on strengths and weaknesses, and identifying improvement opportunities. 3. **Benchmarking & Tool Recommendation**: To propose and apply a set of five recognized international assessment tools or methodologies for sustainable buildings (e.g. certification systems, rating schemes, performance tools). This allows comparison, cross-validation, and alignment with global best practices. ## Tool Recommendation --- The BeCom project promotes an open, inclusive, and transferable approach to learning and assessment. For that reason, the tools below are selected because they are openly accessible, practical, and well aligned with the community garden examples and learning resources in the portfolios. --- ### 1.1. Farming Concrete Data Collection Toolkit **Description:** A practical monitoring and evaluation toolkit for community gardens and urban farms. It helps projects collect evidence about their food production and their environmental, social, health and economic contributions. **Developed by:** Design Trust for Public Space, in collaboration with Farming Concrete and participating urban farmers and gardeners, as part of the Five Borough Farm project. **Access:** Free access. The complete toolkit can be downloaded as a PDF, and the Farming Concrete platform provides online forms for recording and managing data. **Website:** [Farming Concrete Data Collection Toolkit](https://farmingconcrete.org/barn/data-collection-toolkit/) **Key Areas:** Food production; environmental sustainability; social impact; health and well-being; economic impact. **Features:** Twenty data-collection methods organised into five categories; printable worksheets; online data-entry forms; instructional videos; participatory selection of indicators; methods designed and field-tested with community gardeners and urban farmers. ([Farming Concrete](https://farmingconcrete.org/barn/data-collection-toolkit/)) --- ### 1.2. Community Garden Social Impact Assessment Toolkit **Description:** A structured toolkit designed to help community gardens assess and strengthen the social benefits created through relationships between gardeners, neighbourhood residents and local organisations. **Developed by:** Keith Sterling Miller for the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs—CURA, University of Minnesota, in 2012. **Access:** Free access through the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy. Available as a downloadable guide. **Website:** [Community Garden Social Impact Assessment Toolkit](https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/203903) **Key Areas:** Social cohesion; sense of belonging; community relationships; neighbourhood engagement; population diversity; partnerships with local organisations; social sustainability. **Features:** Three complementary assessment methods: a focus group, a survey of garden members and a neighbourhood survey. It includes implementation instructions, templates, reference questionnaires and indicators. Gardens can apply all three methods or select those most relevant to their objectives. ([diba.cat](https://www.diba.cat/en/web/entorn-urba-i-salut/-/community-garden-social-impact-assessment-toolkit)) --- ### 1.3. Guia per a l’avaluació de l’impacte dels programes d’horts socials (Guide for assessing the impact of community garden programs) **Description:** A methodological guide for evaluating the effects of social garden programmes on participants and on the operation of local social services. It is intended to support the improvement and consolidation of these programmes. **Developed by:** Rosa Coscolla and Gabriel Casellato of Fundació Pere Tarrés, under the technical direction of the Social Welfare Management Department of Barcelona Provincial Council. It is based on the evaluation experience of the social garden programme of Premià de Dalt City Council. **Access:** Free access. The publication can be consulted and downloaded from the Barcelona Provincial Council website. **Website:** [Guia per a l’avaluació de l’impacte dels programes d’horts socials](https://www.diba.cat/ca/web/igualtat-ciutadania/-/guia-per-a-l-avaluacio-de-l-impacte-dels-programes-d-horts-socials) **Key Areas:** Social inclusion; participant empowerment; personal and social development; social cohesion; programme outcomes; functioning of social services; programme improvement. **Features:** Methodological guidance; observable variables and parameters; evaluation processes; practical instruments; criteria for assessing changes in participants; analysis of programme implementation and institutional functioning. ([diba.cat](https://www.diba.cat/ca/web/benestar/-/guies-per-al-desenvolupament-i-l-avaluacio-dels-horts-socials)) --- ### 1.4. GARDENS: Inclusive Approaches to Community Gardening and Green Learning Spaces **Description:** An Erasmus+ resource that presents community gardens as inclusive green learning spaces. It supports organisations in making environmental education and community gardening more accessible to people from different social, cultural and functional backgrounds. **Developed by:** A European Erasmus+ consortium comprising Himmelbeet, Krakow Municipal Greenspace Authority, Zasiej, Changemaker, SaluTerre, the Comparative Research Network and Kilowatt. **Access:** Free and open access. The main handbook is available in English and Polish, with summaries in several additional languages. **Website:** [Gardens as Inclusive Green Learning Spaces](https://www.greeninclusion.eu/) **Key Areas:** Social inclusion; accessible environmental education; community participation; ecology; climate change; circular economy; sustainability; food production. **Features:** Training handbook; collection of tested European practices; step-by-step activities; educational materials; participatory methods; examples from five European countries; resources for including people with disabilities and socially excluded groups; practice map and adaptable garden-based learning methods. ([Green Inclusion](https://www.greeninclusion.eu/publication)) --- ### 1.5. RECITAL — Urban Green Space Quality Assessment Tool **Description:** A multidimensional in-situ assessment tool for measuring the quality of urban green spaces, particularly characteristics potentially related to human health and well-being. It can be adapted to assess the physical and environmental quality of community gardens. **Developed by:** Pablo Knobel, Payam Dadvand, Lucia Alonso, Luis Costa, Maria Español and Roser Maneja. The study was led by researchers from ICTA-UAB, ISGlobal and the Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia—CTFC. **Access:** The tool is documented in a scientific article. The publisher provides the abstract and article information, while full-text access may require institutional access. The uploaded version contains the complete methodology, items and scoring system. **Website:** [RECITAL research article](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126895) **Key Areas:** Surroundings; accessibility; facilities; amenities; aesthetics and attractions; incivilities; safety; potential uses; land cover; animal biodiversity; bird biodiversity. **Features:** Ninety assessment items organised into eleven dimensions; five-point scoring scales; in-situ observation; results available as individual-item, dimension-level or overall scores; sections can be selected or adapted to local needs; tested in 149 urban green spaces in Barcelona; demonstrated good-to-excellent overall reliability. ([uab.cat](https://www.uab.cat/web/sala-de-premsa/detall-de-noticia/una-nova-eina-permet-mesurar-la-qualitat-dels-espais-verds-urbans-1345667174054.html?noticiaid=1345832606615)) --- **Recommended use in BeCom: Structured observation of the physical and environmental quality of a community garden or comparable urban green space.**