On biodiversity friendly Green Infrastructure planning. Contribution of plant ecology to the monitoring and valorisation of peri-urban environments in the Metropolitan City of Rome (Mediterranean Italy)

In Europe, Green Infrastructure (GI) represents a strategic tool for supporting the sustainable development of land, conceived for bringing natural and semi-natural areas together to form a physically and/or functionally connected network across rural and urban areas [1]. In particular, the greening of urban and peri-urban areas, that is the integration of GI into urban planning, is expected to provide a crucial contribution to the “bringing back nature into our lives” goal of the new Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 [2]. In Italy, this goal is being further reinforced by the NRRP investment on “Urban and extra-urban forestation”, which is stimulating the recovery of tree cover in metropolitan cities in order to counteract air pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss [3]. Within this framework, the Metropolitan City of Rome is actively involved in deploying GI networks that are capable of facing main environmental, social and economic challenges in the Capital City and surrounding municipalities [4]. An interdisciplinary approach is therefore informing different initiatives promoted by the local administration, with plant ecologists especially engaged in the definition of suitable conservation and restoration actions. The general objective of the present contribution is to highlight how plant and ecological sciences are allowing GI planning processes to become truly biodiversity-friendly in the area [5, 6]. In particular, the project concerning the realization of a cluster of GIs in Valle Galeria, aimed at the environmental restoration and requalification of the western sector of the Metropolitan City, is considered. Such a cluster should aid the multiple objectives of biodiversity conservation, ecological connectivity improvement, air and water quality amelioration, soil consumption containment, and traditional agricultural landscape valorisation, to be addressed. The methodological approach adopted for a specific GI primarily devoted to the containment of biological invasions, together with the recovery of ecological corridors and mitigation of artificialization pressures, will be therefore presented. The approach enhances the usefulness of scientific knowledge in terms of: i) ecological basis for large-scale and local-scale planning; ii) mitigation of conflicts between forestation measures and conservation of vulnerable plant species and habitats; iii) enhancement of synergies between forestation measures and regulating/provisioning ecosystem services capacity. To avoid giving ill-founded recommendations, the deep need for fine-scale definition of ecosystem typology and conditions [7], and for the completion of remotely acquired data with field observation, will be also stressed by means of concrete examples from the case study. References: [1] https://biodiversity.europa.eu/green-infrastructure; [2] Zulian G. et al. (2022). Green balance in urban areas as an indicator for policy support: a multi-level application. One Ecosystem, 7, e72685; [3] https://www.mite.gov.it/comunicati/pnrr-mite-al-progetti-da-330-milioni-di-euro-piantare-6-6-milioni-di-alberi-nelle-citta; [4] http://static.cittametropolitanaroma.it/uploads/DELIB.-CM-111-DEL-2016_06_01-DOCUMENTO-DI-INDIRIZZO.pdf; [5] Maes J. et al. (2019). Enhancing resilience of urban ecosystems through green infrastructure (EnRoute). Publications Office of the European Union: Luxembourg, 1-115. [6] Capotorti et al. (2019). Biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban green infrastructure planning: A case study from the metropolitan area of Rome (Italy). Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 37: 87-96; [7] Valeri, S. et al. (2021). Ecological Connectivity in Agricultural Green Infrastructure: Suggested Criteria for Fine Scale Assessment and Planning. Land, 10(8), 807