Search results for "green infrastructure"
showing 10 items of 31 documents
Can green infrastructure help to conserve biodiversity?
2017
The gradually decreasing connectivity of habitats threatens biodiversity and ecological processes valuable to humans. Green infrastructure is promoted by the European Commission as a key instrument for the conservation of ecosystems in the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020. Green infrastructure has been defined as a network of natural and semi-natural areas, designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services. We surveyed Finnish experts' perceptions on the development of green infrastructure within the existing policy framework. Our results show that improving the implementation of existing conservation policy instruments needs to be an integral part of developing green infr…
2018
The policy term green infrastructure highlights the need to maintain functional ecosystems as a foundation for sustainable societies. Because forests are the main natural ecosystems in Europe, it is crucial to understand the extent to which forest landscape management delivers functional green infrastructures. We used the steep west-east gradient in forest landscape history, land ownership, and political culture within northern Europe's Baltic Sea Region to assess regional profiles of benefits delivered by forest landscapes. The aim was to support policy-makers and planners with evidence-based knowledge about the current conditions for effective wood production and biodiversity conservation…
The Waterfront Theorem: an integrated and creative planning approach
2016
Waterfronts are sensitive interfaces between land and sea, creative interfaces between urban and environmental components, social interfaces between nodes and networks. They not only coincide with the areas of infrastructure that are gathering on the coast, not only with the shoreline or the environmental components of the coastal territories. They are hired by the project as complex interaction of crossing flows, stratified identity of urban communities: fundamental element of the environmental system, synthesis of landscape, space and community, a place of solidification of the identity of the social, cultural and economic community (Carta, 2009). The management of urban interface of wate…
Strategie ecosistemiche e infrastrutture verdi in simbiosi con il costruito
2022
Il numero 11 di AGATHÓN raccoglie saggi, studi, ricerche e progetti sul tema Vegetazione | La sua Simbiosi con il Costruito richiamando il ruolo che la Natura in generale e la Vegetazione in particolare possono svolgere nel breve periodo per affrontare l’attuale sfida del surriscaldamento globale e dei cambiamenti climatici causati da deforestazioni e incendi boschivi, urbanizzazioni selvagge, uso indiscriminato di materie prime non rinnovabili e incremento delle emissioni di anidride carbonica, tutti fattori che determinano un impatto devastante sul nostro ormai fragile ecosistema, sulla società e sull’economia. Se Simon aveva intuito già nel 1969 il potenziale di una ‘nuova ecologia’ in c…
Some European green roof norms and guidelines through the lens of biodiversity : do ecoregions and plant traits also matter?
2018
Abstract Green infrastructure and in particular green roofs are crucial to meet the challenge of sustainable urbanisation fostered by the current European Research and Innovation agenda. Several documents were issued in the last decades in Europe for regulating the design, construction and up-keep of roof greening. In particular, the actual German guidelines have been widely adopted as a reference basis for green roof design and regulation worldwide, because of its exhaustiveness and proven building- and landscaping tradition. With the aim to assess the effectiveness of green roof guidelines and norms in supporting plant and soil biodiversity in different ecoregions, and particularly of the…
The potential of multilayer green roofs for stormwater management in urban area under semi-arid Mediterranean climate conditions
2022
Different low impact development measures have been proposed to make cities more flood-resilient, and recent literature is paying great attention to the evaluation of their direct benefits in terms of flood risk mitigation and the numerous co-benefits that they may offer. This study describes an experimental prototype of a technologically advanced multilayer green roof installed in a Mediterranean urban area (i.e., Palermo, Italy) and explores the results of an analysis of data collected over a one-year monitoring period by a complex sensors network. Multilayer green roofs, or "blue-green" roofs (BGRs), are characterized by a high water retention capacity compared to traditional green roofs…
Evaluating the thermal-radiative performance of ENVI-met model for green infrastructure typologies: Experience from a subtropical climate
2022
Abstract Microclimate knowledge has been intensively integrated into urban planning and design to improve the buildings’ energy performance and outdoor thermal comfort. To assess the climatic mitigation strategies, numerical modeling is gaining higher relevance. ENVI-met, a microclimate model to simulate the complex surface-vegetation-atmosphere interactions in the built environment, is receiving increasing popularity. This study aims to systematically evaluate the thermal-radiative performance of the ENVI-met model based on its recent updates. First, a field measurement was conducted in a subtropical city. Thermal-radiative parameters were collected besides three green infrastructure (GI) …
ASSESSMENT OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES FOR PLANNING OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL
2019
Ecosystem services (ES) are defined as the benefits that human beings derive from ecosystem functions. Assessment and mapping of these benefits are crucial for sustainable environmental planning and future natural capital. Green infrastructure (GI) is natural or semi-natural territories that provide wide range of ES. Human affected ecosystems tend to fail to provide certain sets of ES due to the trade-offs among those services, which could be mitigated through implementation of GI. Mapping of ES, as well as assessing the interactions among various ES and analysing their supply potential’s cold/hot spots considerably enhances and substantiates the planning process of GI, particularly at the …
Urban Services to Ecosystems - Green Infrastructure Benefits from the Landscape to the Urban Scale
2021
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…
La costruzione di connessioni longitudinali e trasversali sul waterfront centrale di Catania: applicazione del concetto di infrastruttura verde per l…
2022
Il processo di rigenerazione di un’area di interfaccia città-porto può affrontare il tema progettuale degli impatti dell'espansione incontrollata e della frammentazione urbana e dovrebbe, come mostrato da numerosi casi studio europei, potrebbe contribuire alla connettività nelle reti ecologiche e promuovere gli spazi verdi nell'ambiente urbano, laddove le infrastrutture portuali e di mobilità hanno interrotto la continuità ecologica del sistema costiero. Aderendo alla strategia dell'UE per le infrastrutture verdi (Green Infrastructure Strategy), le infrastrutture verdi sono in grado di affrontare un'ampia gamma di sfide urbane, come la conservazione della biodiversità, l'adattamento ai camb…