The mission of NISTO is to create an evaluation framework for sustainable planning, which helps transport planners, authorities, researchers and non-governmental organisations to avoid decisions leading to a waste of financial resources as well as to fulfill determined targets. Uniquely the NISTO approach integrates the three pillars of sustainability: Economy, Environment and Society as equal evaluation criteria
 
What is the NISTO evaluation framework?
The NISTO evaluation toolkit is an easy-to-use set of tools for practitioners to appraise small-scale mobility projects in term of their sustainability, stakeholder preferences, societal impact and achievement of policy targets. It is particularly suited for the early assessment of alternatives when detailed data about the impacts of the interventions is not yet available.

The evaluation process is supported by a set of core and optional evaluation criteria and indicators that reflect the general understanding of the three pillars of sustainability as well as local project characteristics. These criteria and the related indicators are used throughout the evaluation process to appraise project options, monitor implementation and evaluate the outcomes.

The NISTO framework is based on extensive research and consultation with stakeholders.

The framework offers three evaluation tools:

• assessment of sustainability by Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA),

• assessment of stakeholder preferences by Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA)

• assessment of policy success by target monitoring.

What can the NISTO toolkit be used for?
The NISTO toolkit is designed for transport planners, local and regional authorities, researchers and non-governmental organisations that want to appraise different options to solve a mobility-related problem in the urban or rural context.

Approach
At a first stage the relevant stakeholders are selected, the evaluation criteria, corresponding indicators and the policy targets to be achieved are identified based on the characteristics of the project. Following the first step, one or more of the evaluation tools are selected from the toolkit based on the attributes of the project (size, objectives of the evaluation, transport modes affected, stakeholders involved, project lifespan). After that data needs to be collected or estimated for the baseline as well as the future situations and it is entered into the toolkit software for evaluation.

Results
The output of the evaluation provides a score of sustainability of each project option, preference scores for stakeholders or an assessment of the potential achievement of the targets depending on the evaluation tool used.

The result of this approach will support decision-makers in taking an informed decision, which considers sustainability, social costs and benefits as well as stakeholder preferences.