This paper advances a composite indicator called urban environmental virtuosity index (UEVI), in order to measure the efforts made by public local bodies in applying an ecosystem approach to urban management. UEVI employs the less exploited process-based selection criteria for representing the original concept of virtuosity, providing makes a cross cities comparison. In developing such a framework the main technical issue of constructing a composite indicator, involving the weighting and the aggregation phases, will be overcome by using a multivariate approach.