In Southern Italy, cities are characterized by a lack of public urban green spaces. Non-urbanised areas (NUAs) in these cities are suffering from surrounding urbanization pressures. These areas still provide important ecosystem services even if they are limited in size, highly fragmented and often neglected by local planning. New planning strategies are needed in order to protect and enhance the provision of ecosystem services delivered by existing NUAs, but municipalities do not have funds for acquiring public green areas via expropriations. At the same time, requests for new urban development are still considerable. Consequently, it is not realistic to propose strategies for green areas that do not include new developments. The paper illustrates a strategy for a Green Oriented Urban Development (GOUD) that has been applied for the general master plan in Catania, a medium sized city in Southern Italy. Undeveloped areas within the existing urban fabric are designed as components of a new Green Infrastructure. In these areas, the strategy includes a limited amount of developments as well as new green areas, through the transfer of property and development rights between the municipality and developers. This will increase the endowment of public green and services at reduced cost for the municipality. The proposed Green Infrastructure will provide ecosystem services, such as climate regulation and recreation by enhancing evapotranspiring and permeable areas. Within this strategy, the provision of urban ecosystem services is evaluated by comparing two scenarios: the current no development condition and the GOUD scenario. The evaluation is conducted using a set of indicators including accessibility for users, amount of evapotranspiring land covers, aesthetic value and connectivity of the Green Infrastructure. All indicators are calculated by using GIS. Results show that it is possible to improve urban ecosystem services allowing a more liveable and healthy urban environment.

In Southern Italy, cities are characterized by a lack of public urban green spaces. Non-urbanised areas (NUAs) in these cities are suffering from surrounding urbanization pressures. These areas still provide important ecosystem services even if they are limited in size, highly fragmented and often neglected by local planning. New planning strategies are needed in order to protect and enhance the provision of ecosystem services delivered by existing NUAs, but municipalities do not have funds for acquiring public green areas via expropriations. At the same time, requests for new urban development are still considerable. Consequently, it is not realistic to propose strategies for green areas that do not include new developments. The paper illustrates a strategy for a Green Oriented Urban Development (GOUD) that has been applied for the general master plan in Catania, a medium sized city in Southern Italy. Undeveloped areas within the existing urban fabric are designed as components of a new Green Infrastructure. In these areas, the strategy includes a limited amount of developments as well as new green areas, through the transfer of property and development rights between the municipality and developers. This will increase the endowment of public green and services at reduced cost for the municipality. The proposed Green Infrastructure will provide ecosystem services, such as climate regulation and recreation by enhancing evapotranspiring and permeable areas. Within this strategy, the provision of urban ecosystem services is evaluated by comparing two scenarios: the current no development condition and the GOUD scenario. The evaluation is conducted using a set of indicators including accessibility for users, amount of evapotranspiring land covers, aesthetic value and connectivity of the Green Infrastructure. All indicators are calculated by using GIS. Results show that it is possible to improve urban ecosystem services allowing a more liveable and healthy urban environment.

Green Oriented Urban Development for urban ecosystem services provision in a medium sized city in Southern Italy

LA GRECA, Paolo;LA ROSA, SANTI DANIELE;MARTINICO, Francesco;Privitera R.
2012-01-01

Abstract

In Southern Italy, cities are characterized by a lack of public urban green spaces. Non-urbanised areas (NUAs) in these cities are suffering from surrounding urbanization pressures. These areas still provide important ecosystem services even if they are limited in size, highly fragmented and often neglected by local planning. New planning strategies are needed in order to protect and enhance the provision of ecosystem services delivered by existing NUAs, but municipalities do not have funds for acquiring public green areas via expropriations. At the same time, requests for new urban development are still considerable. Consequently, it is not realistic to propose strategies for green areas that do not include new developments. The paper illustrates a strategy for a Green Oriented Urban Development (GOUD) that has been applied for the general master plan in Catania, a medium sized city in Southern Italy. Undeveloped areas within the existing urban fabric are designed as components of a new Green Infrastructure. In these areas, the strategy includes a limited amount of developments as well as new green areas, through the transfer of property and development rights between the municipality and developers. This will increase the endowment of public green and services at reduced cost for the municipality. The proposed Green Infrastructure will provide ecosystem services, such as climate regulation and recreation by enhancing evapotranspiring and permeable areas. Within this strategy, the provision of urban ecosystem services is evaluated by comparing two scenarios: the current no development condition and the GOUD scenario. The evaluation is conducted using a set of indicators including accessibility for users, amount of evapotranspiring land covers, aesthetic value and connectivity of the Green Infrastructure. All indicators are calculated by using GIS. Results show that it is possible to improve urban ecosystem services allowing a more liveable and healthy urban environment.
2012
In Southern Italy, cities are characterized by a lack of public urban green spaces. Non-urbanised areas (NUAs) in these cities are suffering from surrounding urbanization pressures. These areas still provide important ecosystem services even if they are limited in size, highly fragmented and often neglected by local planning. New planning strategies are needed in order to protect and enhance the provision of ecosystem services delivered by existing NUAs, but municipalities do not have funds for acquiring public green areas via expropriations. At the same time, requests for new urban development are still considerable. Consequently, it is not realistic to propose strategies for green areas that do not include new developments. The paper illustrates a strategy for a Green Oriented Urban Development (GOUD) that has been applied for the general master plan in Catania, a medium sized city in Southern Italy. Undeveloped areas within the existing urban fabric are designed as components of a new Green Infrastructure. In these areas, the strategy includes a limited amount of developments as well as new green areas, through the transfer of property and development rights between the municipality and developers. This will increase the endowment of public green and services at reduced cost for the municipality. The proposed Green Infrastructure will provide ecosystem services, such as climate regulation and recreation by enhancing evapotranspiring and permeable areas. Within this strategy, the provision of urban ecosystem services is evaluated by comparing two scenarios: the current no development condition and the GOUD scenario. The evaluation is conducted using a set of indicators including accessibility for users, amount of evapotranspiring land covers, aesthetic value and connectivity of the Green Infrastructure. All indicators are calculated by using GIS. Results show that it is possible to improve urban ecosystem services allowing a more liveable and healthy urban environment.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/111172
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