A Territorial Contradiction

Spatial planning and environmental restoration are essential corollaries to the management of protected natural areas; however, without a sound awareness of the evolutionary consistency of biocoenoses, the harmonious integration between human activities and ecosystem preservation remains an unattainable utopia. The theorisation of a balanced welfare, inspired by the universal tendency of ecosystems to reach a steady state, has to go along with the defection from any economic greed. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.

Anthosart Green Tool: Selecting Species for Green Infrastructure Design

The environmental and economic costs of greenery depend on the planning criteria adopted and on the plants used. These costs can become more sustainable and can also be significantly lowered by using native flora and getting inspired by local plant communities. Nature-based solutions entail the use of species that co-occur naturally, thus replicating a model of coexistence consolidated by the evolutionary coherence of the biosphere. Planning, using and (re-)producing – getting inspired by natural ecosystems – may foster the dissemination of ecological awareness, with gardens, avenues, rooftops, walls and balconies seen as spaces available for the urban reconciliation with nature. The Anthos…

Contraddizione territoriale

Disintegration of Italian rural landscapes to international environmental agreements

In Italy, the first law that puts landscape and historical buildings under public control was implemented in 1922. While this represents a significant achievement for those times, for that law landscape essentially has an historical and aesthetic connotation, without any explicit reference to the components of flora, fauna and geology. Today, many protection policies and initiatives are still biased by the lack of reference to the intrinsic value that biodiversity and ecosystem services have for the maintenance of traditional landscapes, as well as for the survival of the human species. The priority accorded to historical and aesthetic values can lead to a lack of attention to the complex r…

Urban Services to Ecosystems - Green Infrastructure Benefits from the Landscape to the Urban Scale

The aim of this book is to bring together multidisciplinary research in the field of green infrastructure design, construction and ecology. The main core of the volume is constituted by contributions dealing with green infrastructure, vegetation science, nature-based solutions and sustainable urban development. The green infrastructure and its ecosystem services, indeed, are gaining space in both political agendas and academic research. However, the attention is focused on the services that nature is giving for free to and for human health and survival. What if we start to see things from another perspective? Our actions shall converge for instance to turn man-made environment like cities f…