This chapter sets the context for understanding how urban nature and nature-based solutions are governed by defining governance, highlighting different types and forms of governance, and discussing the roles that different actors play in various governance arrangements while putting the governance of urban nature into a multi-level perspective. The chapter provides a typology of governance approaches, through which the roles, constellations, and responsibilities of actors, financial sources, and institutional arrangements are outlined and discussed. It then highlights the challenges and opportunities for governing urban nature and proposes a set of eight principles and values underpinning effective governance as well as exploring the challenges and potential conflicts arising among these principles when many of them are applied at the same time. The chapter engages with two case studies to illustrate its key messages: Isar River Restoration in Munich, Germany, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre in Athens, Greece.

In Chapter 10, the author introduces performance assessments: test activities that require test takers to use language in a manner similar to how they use language in the target language use situation. The chapter describes and discusses the appropriate uses of several types of tasks: prepared oral presentation, knowledge-based, retell, summary, synthesis, roleplay, interview, paired oral discussion, group oral discussion, elicited imitation, and picture tasks. The chapter also discusses the delivery of performance assessment tasks, including face-to-face, virtual, and computerized delivery models. The author compares and contrasts oral communication assessments in video-mediated and virtual environments. The chapter compares spoken dialog systems, electronic systems that can orally interact with humans, to complex language-processing models, such as ChatGPT, that generate language from large databases. The chapter includes an appendix for using ChatGPT to help create a performance assessment.

In Chapter 9, the author discusses both content and statistical approaches to evaluating and revising criterion-referenced assessments at both the item and test levels. The chapter includes guidelines for judging criterion-referenced item types and the content of specific items. The chapter also discusses standard setting and takes readers through an example of how to use the Angoff method for this purpose. It introduces descriptive statistics for criterion-refenced assessments, including median, mastery rate, item facility, and B-Index, a statistic that provides an indication of how well an item distinguishes among test takers who have mastered and test takers who have not mastered the targeted ability of the assessment. The chapter concludes with an explanation of how to calculate and interpret dependability for a classroom vocabulary test. It includes an appendix which shows how to use Excel to calculate each of the statistics that the chapter introduces.

In Chapter 4, the author introduces the concept of validity. The chapter begins with an exploration of approaches to defining a construct. These approaches include using language theory, a language needs analysis, corpora, and curriculum objectives to help test developers determine what specific language ability they desire to measure. The chapter emphasizes the importance of alignment, which relates to how well the test content and test taker response processes match the construct’s content and the response processes that the test aims to measure. The author uses a detailed example of assessing children’s ability to communicate on a playground in a second language. The major point of the example is that the assessment should require children to use the same kinds of language they use when they communicate on the playground. This alignment helps ensure that the assessment measures the targeted language ability and will lead to positive washback on teaching and learning.

Urban nature holds great potential to address the web of challenges that cities are facing and support transitions to a more sustainable future. Cities are working with nature in a diversity of ways, such as by using blue and green infrastructure. Blue infrastructure includes, for example, lakes, ponds, drains, and wetlands. These features can regulate storm-water flows, reduce pressure on the urban drainage system, and create sponge cities that lower flooding risks while reducing heat island effects, enhancing biodiversity, and providing recreational opportunities. Green infrastructure can include, for example, urban forests, green roofs and walls, multi-functional parks, and river embankments. These areas can improve air quality and energy efficiency, reduce heat island effects, and contribute to human health and well-being, amongst other benefits. Furthermore, urban gardens can increase access to food and employment while enhancing physical and mental health and social integration.