Resilience Through Ecological Network

The paper explores the strategic role that urban biodiversity and ecosystem services management, natural infrastructure and adaptive governance approaches can play in making our economies and societies more resilient and in linking human societies and the natural environment. Resilience - a concept that entered the debate on urban governance - means the ability of urban systems, considered as linear-systems, to react to external disturbances by returning to some socio-ecological equilibrium steadystate by overcoming a crisis period (Gunderson & al. 2010, Newman & al. 2009). In this view, green infrastructures can assume a strategic role in restoring and enhancing the ecological and environmental livability in urban areas. Starting from the International and European context, the paper discusses innovative programs and interdisciplinary projects and practices (some cases in Turin Metropolitan Area) to demonstrate how green infrastructures can increase the adaptive capacity of urban systems in term of resilience. They can contribute to increase the ability of European cities to adapt to climate change and to reduce their ecological footprints, to enhance security and life quality