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Urban areas are experiencing major changes and facing significant sustainability challenges. Many cities are undergoing a transition towards a post-industrial phase and need to consider the regeneration of brownfield sites. Nature-Based Solutions (NBSs) are increasingly considered as tools for supporting this transition and promoting sustainable development by delivering multiple ecosystem services (ESs). Although the potential of NBSs as a cost-effective enabler of urban sustainability has been recognized, their implementation faces numerous barriers. The effective assessment of benefits delivered by urban NBSs is considered by existing literature as one of them. In order to contribute to filling this knowledge gap, we analyzed two alternative NBS-based intervention scenarios—i.e., (1) an urban forest and (2) meadows with sparse trees—for the redevelopment of an urban brownfield area within the municipality of Brescia (Northern Italy). Nine ESs were assessed both in biophysical and economic terms via a combination of modeling (InVEST, i-Tree and ESTIMAP) and traditional estimation methods. The results show that both scenarios improve ES stock and flow compared to the baseline, ensuring annual flows ranging between 140,000 and 360,000 EUR/year. Scenario 1 shows higher values when single ESs are considered, while scenario 2 shows higher total values, as it also accounts for the phytoremediation capacity that is not considered under the first scenario. All in all, regulating ESs represent the bulk of estimated ESs, thus highlighting the potential of proposed NBSs for improving urban resilience. The ES assessment and valuation exercise presented within this paper is an example of how research and practice can be integrated to inform urban management activities, and provide inputs for future decision making and planning regarding urban developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three quarters of the European population live in urban areas, which is expected to increase to over 80% by 2050. The well-being of urban citizens appears to be closely linked to the correlation between the growth of urban areas and to the availability of green spaces. The conservation and the enhancement of the Green Infrastructure (GI) can be considered a Nature-Based Solution (NBS) to improve the sustainability of urban development. From this perspective, it is important to identify priority areas close to existing GIs suitable to be preserved from further urban encroachment. Our study aims to draw up a methodology to identify priority areas and, accordingly, to expand the GIs. The main objectives are: (i) to identify the most sensitive areas of the GI to be preserved from urban encroachment; (ii) to locate arable lands in the vacant border territories between GIs and built-up areas, that, if converted into connected elements, would enhance the connectivity of the existing GIs whilst limiting land take; (iii) to define an index of priorities for increasing the GI territory by means of NBSs, taking into account the variability of GI coverage and level of legal protection for nature conservation across different neighborhoods in the city. This approach is applied to the GIs of the 15 administrative units of the municipality of Rome (Italy) as a case study. First, we focus on Urban Atlas classes to map the GIs in the municipality. We then use Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis, implemented by a free software toolbox GUIDOS, to identify the key components of the GIs, such as hubs (core areas) and links (bridges). Then, a simulated new scenario is provided by including within the current GIs the agricultural lands outside protected areas, but within a buffer zone of 300 m from the land take. If the aforementioned agricultural lands, amounting to about 8000 ha, were converted into GI elements, they could lead to the improvement of connectivity and limit land take. Finally, in order to expand the area of the GIs, priority areas are selected within each administrative unit using an index based on the budget allocation process. The proposed methodology could be used: (i) by decision makers, looking for NBS in the design and planning of sustainable development of the city; and (ii) to enhance GI connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid expansion of urban built-up areas since the 1950s has led to the Milan region becoming one of the major metropolitan areas of Europe. This has been accompanied by significant structural changes to urban and peri-urban landscapes and fragmentation of formerly contiguous green corridors by the distribution of new urban forms such as housing and transport infrastructure. The need to address the loss of green space was first recognised by policy-makers at the end of the 1970s and in due course, this has led to new policies and laws. These policies included the introduction of the Milan metropolitan parks approach that, nowadays, is represented by numerous urban forests that have become the backbone of green infrastructure (GI) creation and management. In the last decades, a total of 10?000 hectares of new forests and green systems have been created. Boscoincittà and Parco Nord Milano are the best known examples of this approach aimed to redevelop the neighbourhoods of some suburbs of Milan to create multifunctional green spaces (forests, grasslands, wetlands, river corridor, and allotment gardens) in lands previously industrial or uncultivated. The creation and management of urban forests has become the backbone of GI creation and management in the Metropolitan Area of Milan. In recent decades, trends of land use change have been characterised by a rapid decrease in natural and agricultural areas and an increase in artificial and urban structures. Although the phenomenon is growing rapidly in this area, there is evidence of an opposite social and environmental trend highlighting the importance of GI positively affecting urban quality of life. Recent policies and management plans are dealing with this evidence by turning their attention to expanding green areas and infrastructure. The purpose of our investigation is to revisit effective measures designed to increase the quality and quantity of UGI in the metropolitan region under study. To this end, we assessed land use changes and described the potentialities and impacts of policies on such phenomena. The study analyses the main elements of UGI in the Italian context within the framework of the European Union Life + project called Emonfur, a research programme involving,inter alia, the establishment of an Urban Forest inventory and impact analysis of ecosystem services in the Metropolitan Area of Milan. Our research has allowed us to determine the current status of key sites by monitoring the policy and planning decisions that resulted in their development. We believe that such an analysis can pave the way to understand future land-use dynamics not only in northern Italy but in other metropolitan territories as well. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]