Position paper “Green infrastructures in cities ten years after the law on urban green spaces"
On 19 December, the Position paper "Green infrastructures in cities ten years after the law on urban green spaces" was released, developed by the ASviS working group on Goal 11 "Sustainable cities and communities".
Ten years after the approval of law n.10 "Regulations for the development of urban green spaces", a "profound turning point" is needed in Italian policies for greenery and biodiversity. Despite the spread of awareness of the importance of urban greenery among local administrations, there has not in fact been an increase in green areas, nor has adequate urban planning been adopted to protect the natural heritage.
The Position paper pays particular attention to the Municipal Green Plan, a voluntary urban planning tool which only 8% of the capital municipalities have adopted.
It is necessary to activate a national education and awareness campaign aimed at schools and citizens. Furthermore, it is necessary to define multilevel governance models for the planning of urban and extra-urban green areas, involving interested public and private entities and making municipal urban green plans mandatory. The Position paper underlines the need to approve a law for the elimination of net land consumption, an objective that the European Union has indicated for 2050 and the Italian Ecological Transition Plan (Pte) has brought forward to 2030.
An ISPRA researcher, moderator of the Goal 11 Urban and Periurban Green Infrastructure subgroup, contributed to the creation of the Position paper.