Search Results (8)

Green Infrastructure (GI) is crucial for urban climate adaptation, providing ecosystem services like mitigating the urban heat island effect and enhancing stormwater management, alongside benefits for public health and biodiversity. Effective GI implementation remains challenging, particularly in dense, rapidly urbanized mid-Adriatic coastal cities, classified as climate hotspots like other Mediterranean contexts. This paper presents a replicable applied trans-scalar methodology for detailed GI design scenarios, developed through the EU-funded LIFE+ A_GreeNet project to bridge the theory–practice gap and enable pilot implementations in multiple Italian mid-Adriatic coastal municipalities. The research details a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, five-phase process applied to the Sant’Antonio district of San Benedetto del Tronto—a dense, trafficked urban area projected to face “extremely strong heat stress” by 2050. Design interventions included spatial optimization, strategic species replacement, the creation of vegetated bioretention basins, and systematic pavement de-sealing. The application of the model demonstrated significant improvements: a substantial increase in permeable surface area (+194%), a measurable reduction in the UTCI index (average ENVI-MET simulated reduction of 1.17 °C by 2030), and a series of benefits resulting from increased green space and enhanced meteorological water management. This research offers local authorities a tangible model to accelerate climate-adaptive solutions, showing how precise GI design creates resilient, comfortable, and human-centered urban spaces. Full article

De-sealing, or depaving, is increasingly adopted to restore soil permeability and support green infrastructure, yet its potential to recover soil functions remains insufficiently understood. This study reports one year of soil monitoring following the de-sealing of a brownfield site in Milan (Italy). It compares the evolution of pedoclimatic parameters in sealed and de-sealed soils and assesses the suitability of recycled aggregates (RAs) from demolition waste as a soil-forming material. Buried sensors continuously recorded pedoclimatic parameters, temperature, water content, and oxygen concentration, while periodic sampling was carried out to analyse soil chemical properties, bacterial community composition, and the quality of percolation water (heavy metal content). De-sealing immediately improved pedoclimatic conditions, enhancing soil aeration, water regulation, and heat exchange capacity. No significant variation was detected in soil chemical properties, apart from pH fluctuations linked to the leaching of alkaline ions from concrete-based RAs. The presence of RAs caused no adverse effects on either soil or percolation water. Bacterial community composition was strongly associated with soil organic carbon, C:N ratio, and soil water content, without showing clear temporal trends. Overall, the study demonstrates that de-sealing rapidly triggers soil functional recovery and that, when properly characterised for composition and contamination risk, RAs pose no evident threat to the surrounding environment. Full article

In the face of mounting challenges related to limited availability of urban land and ecological degradation, emerging novel ecosystems offer unique opportunities for ecological regeneration, social redefinition of space, and alternative urban visions. This study presents the multi-layer analysis of the Goccia Forest in Milan (Italy), a wild urban woodland that has developed over sealed and polluted post-industrial land, aiming to investigate the potential of this novel ecosystem to sustain Nature-based Solutions (NbSs). Using an integrated approach (surveys on fauna, vascular flora, lichens, analysis of forest evolution, mapping of sealed surfaces, and soil characterization) the research looks at the novel ecosystem as a whole, highlighting its ecological dynamics and Ecosystem Services (ES). La Goccia Forest serves as a prime example of how the implementation of NbSs is intricately intertwined with the spontaneous regeneration of urban brownfields. The present study offers the opportunity to rethink urban policies, ensuring their alignment with the demands of the population and the latest scientific knowledge. Full article

Consideration of the future fate of brownfields in urban environments has driven a complex ‘season’ of decisions, planning, and implementation that has seen the emergence of different approaches and actions for their reuse. Among the various experiences of brownfield redevelopment, some projects have also promoted the partial renaturalisation of areas through soil desealing and demolition of existing buildings. These greening initiatives have provided new public facilities, e.g., parks and green areas, helping to improve the conditions of urban environments both from ecological and social perspectives. This article adopts ex ante and ex post methods to analyse two Italian case studies of brownfield regeneration involving desealing interventions and investigates two key aspects: (i) the planning process and tools that were put in place to implement the projects and (ii) the impacts for human wellbeing that were produced in terms of cooling effects. The analyses conducted show the real effectiveness of renaturation interventions especially related to reforestation measures in terms of temperature reduction. The examination of the two case studies also revealed the importance and potential success of traditional planning and implementation tools in promoting interventions that can now be considered innovative in terms of their actual contribution to current urban challenges. The results therefore allow us to emphasize the fundamental importance of the philosophy and basic principles of a transformation process, even guided by traditional planning tools, for the improvement of the environmental conditions of an urban context and the successful implementation of nature-based solutions. Full article

Modeling ecosystem services is a growing trend in scientific research, and Nature-based Solutions (NbSs) are increasingly used by land-use planners and environmental designers to achieve improved adaptation to climate change and mitigation of the negative effects of climate change. Predictions of ecological benefits of NbSs are needed early in design to support decision making. In this study, we used ecological analysis to predict the benefits of two NbSs applied to a university masterplan and adjusted our preliminary design strategy according to the first modeling results. Our Area of Interest was the IZTECH campus, which is located in a rural area of the eastern Mediterranean region (Izmir/Turkey). A primary design goal was to improve habitat quality by revitalizing soil. Customized analysis of the Baseline Condition and two NbSs scenarios was achieved by using local values obtained from a high-resolution photogrammetric scan of the catchment to produce flow accumulation and habitat quality indexes. Results indicate that anthropogenic features are the primary cause of habitat decay and that decreasing imperviousness reduces habitat decay significantly more than adding vegetation. This study creates a method of supporting sustainability goals by quickly testing alternative NbSs. The main innovation is demonstrating that early approximation of the ecological benefits of NbSs can inform preliminary design strategy. The proposed model may be calibrated to address specific environmental challenges of a given location and test other forms of NbSs. Full article

Soil is a non-renewable natural resource. However, the current rates of soil usage and degradation have led to a loss of soil for agriculture, habitats, biodiversity, and to ecosystems problems. Urban and former industrial areas suffer particularly of these problems, and compensation measures to restore environmental quality include the renaturation of dismissed areas, de-sealing of surfaces, or the building of green infrastructures. In this framework, the development of methodologies for the creation of soils designed to mimic natural soil and suitable for vegetation growth, known as constructed soils or technosols, are here reviewed. The possible design choices and the starting materials have been described, using a circular economy approach, i.e., preferring non-contaminated wastes to non-renewable resources. Technosols appear to be a good solution to the problems of land degradation and urban green if using recycled wastes or by-products, as they can be an alternative to the remediation of contaminated sites and to importing fertile agricultural soil. Nevertheless, waste use requires analysis to ensure the salubrity of the starting materials. Moreover, materials produced on site or nearby minimize the cost and the environmental impact of transport, thus the involvement of local stakeholders in the urban land management must be encouraged. Full article

Most urban greening interventions involve soil de-sealing and management to enhance fertility. Management typically requires translocating fertile topsoil to the site, which comes at great environmental costs. We hypothesized that de-sealed urban soils would undergo an increase of their fertility without exogenous topsoil application. We assessed experimental plots with de-sealed soil with topsoil, and de-sealed soil without topsoil. Both treatments were vegetated with two ornamental shrub species and irrigated. Soil fertility was analyzed by chemical (total and organic carbon) and biological indicators of soils (biological quality index and microbial activities). Since metal contamination is related to urban de-sealed soil, we also monitored the concentration of Zn, Cu and Pb in soil and detected it in plant leaves. The results demonstrate that de-sealed urban soils rapidly restore their biological quality and fertility. Restoration of de-sealing soils can contribute to the recent growing interest reclamation of urban soils for improving the urban environment quality through the restoration of soil functions and related ecosystem services. Overall, the results of this study demonstrate that de-sealed soils can improve their functionality and can contribute to the recent growing interest in reclamation of urban soils for improving the urban environment quality. Full article

Recovery of soil fertility after de-sealing of urban soils is still poorly known. This work studied the time-related dynamics of soil physico-chemical and biochemical endpoints of urban soil in the city in Naples (Southern Italy), de-sealed for different time during construction works, that underwent colonization by volunteer plants. The results showed de-sealing decreased the soil bulk density and the soil pH value, increased the electrical conductivity (EC), total organic C (TOC) and extractable carbohydrates (TEC), total and inorganic N contents, soil basal respiration (SBR), soil microbial biomass C (MBC) and soil microbial biomass N (MBN), the substrate induced respiration (SIR) value, and enzyme activities involved in C, N, P and S mineralization. The TEC, total and inorganic N, SBR and microbial biochemical endpoints were higher in the de-sealed soils than those of an arable soil of the same area. The results show that de-sealed urban soils rapidly increase their physical, chemical and biological fertility even with no intervention, especially when they are colonized by volunteer plants. Full article