The ecosystem potential of peri-urban greenery

The effects of climate change are increasingly manifest on a global scale, with the growing intensityand frequency of extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, cold and heat waves. Thefundamental role of greenery in adapting to and mitigating climate change and, more generally, inimproving the quality of urbanised contexts has long been recognised by scientific community andinternational policymakers. Peri-urban contexts are territorial areas in which it is possible to envisagestructural and systematic mitigation and adaptation actions facing climate change and environmentalpressures, with even substantial actions of green infrastructuring and ecological reconnection. Theseactions can contribute to improve the landscape quality of these areas, often abandoned and/ordegraded, as well as to increase their usability (leisure time, sports, outdoor activities, etc.). The articlepresents some research experiences carried out by the ENVI-Reg research group, coordinated by Prof.Elena Mussinelli, that provided methodological and scientific support for the elaboration of plans andprojects on an urban, metropolitan and territorial scale in Italy. The selected research projects providecontributions to the evaluation and quantification of the ecosystem potential of different greeninfrastructure solutions in peri-urban landscapes.