Green infrastructures: a framework to apply a multiscalar and transectoral approach in planning

Book of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017According to EU strategy green infrastructure is: “a strategically planned network of natural and seminatural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services. […]. On land, GI is present in rural and urban settings” (EC, 2013b:3) therefore, it is recognised and referred to a multifunctional network of healthy ecosystems, serving the interests of both people and nature (Figure1). Referring to planning instruments this drives to assume that a green infrastructure (GI) strategy should favour a better integration between territorial/urban planning and design with sectorial planning and other instruments and policies with spatial impact by the mean of the multifunctional nature of GI. In order to foster the improvement of approaches and tools towards its implementation, the planning experience currently under way in Lombardy Region (IT) related to the new Regional Landscape Plan (RLP) is a good example that assumes concretely the role and potential of green infrastructures in spatial planning with a multi-scalar approach. The RLP fully undertakes the principles of the European Landscape Convention (ELC), where: ”Landscape” means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors” (COE, 2000), recognizing the importance of environmental and ecological components in landscape planning, and improving the integration between cultural and environmental aspects. Moreover, according to the ELC, the plan pays great attention to “landscapes that might be considered outstanding as well as every day or degraded landscapes” (COE, 2000) considering that this typology of landscape covers a large part of Lombardy, corresponding to the metropolitan region of Milan.Published versio