Ecosystem Services and Green Infrastructure: Perspectives from Spatial Planning in Italy (Cities and Nature)

The book analyses the relationship between ecosystem services, green and blue infrastructures (GBI) and spatial planning in Italy. It provides insights on the opportunities and challenges in the adoption of an ecosystem services (ES)-based approach for Spatial Planning exploring methods and techniques for the design of GBI strategies.

Nowadays, there is an advance in ES knowledge and a recognition of the benefits of GBI for the quality of human life and biodiversity conservation. The main challenge remains how this knowledge could be integrated into the planning process and how it could guide the decision-making process towards sustainable development for contemporary cities.

The book collects innovative Italian experiences providing important considerations for operationalizing the ES concept and highlighting different disciplinary attitudes and methodological approaches with the common goal to enhance human well-being.

Andrea Arcidiacono MSc. Arch., PhD in Urban Regional and Environmental Planning at the Politecnico di Milano. Associate Professor at the DAStU (Dep. of Architecture and Urban Studies), Politecnico di Milano. He is director of the LabPPTE (Landscape Plans Territories Ecosystems Lab) and member of the scientific board of the CRCS (Land Take Research Centre). Since 2016 He is vice-President of the National Institute of Urban Planning (INU). He is also a member of the editorial board of the national journal Urbanistica. His research focuses on landscape and urban planning; open spaces and green & blue infrastructure design; ecosystem analysis and nature-based solutions for spatial planning, and policies for land take limitation. Currently, he is the DAStU principal investigator in the programme LIFE 2014-2020 ‘European Programme for the Environment and Climate Action’ (LIFE 2017), ‘SOIL4LIFE’, and project leader (DAStU-POLIMI) for studies and researches to support the revision of the Lombardy Regional Landscape Plan. He has been a member of the Scientific Committee for the Town Plan of the City of Milan (2012). He has been a consultant of several Public Administrations and designer of town plans and detail plans. He is (co)author of over 120 scientific publications.

 

Silvia Ronchi MSc. Urban Planning, PhD in Urban Planning, Design and Policy at the Politecnico di Milano. Untenured researcher and assistant professor at the DAStU (Dep. of Architecture and Urban Studies), Politecnico di Milano and member of the LabPPTE (Landscape Plans Territories Ecosystems Lab). She is specialised in Geographic Information System for Spatial planning. Since 2007 she is member of the scientific board of the CRCS (Land Take Research Centre) and editor of the CRCS annual national reports.

From 2015 to 2018, she collaborated with the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (Territorial Development Unit – B3). She is a member of the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) and the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE).

Her research focuses on ecosystem services mapping, landscape and urban planning, environmental assessment, green and blue infrastructure design. She has been a consultant of several Public administrations for the Strategic Environmental Assessment of town plans, and research centres for sustainable development projects (ecological connection, landscape studies and natural capital). She is (co)author of over 50 scientific publications.