A loss of natural capital within cities and their surrounding areas has been noticed over the last decades. Increasing development associated with higher sealing rates has caused a general loss of Urban Green Spaces (UGS) within the urban environment, whereas urban sprawl and the improvement of road networks have deeply fragmented the surrounding landscape and jeopardized ecosystems connectivity. UGS are an essential component of the urban system, and their loss has a greater impact on, e.g., ecological and hydrological processes, threatening human well-being. Different types and spatial configurations of UGS may affect their own ability to provide ecosystem services, such as biodiversity support and water regulation. Nevertheless, the study of UGS spatial patterns is a research branch poorly addressed. Moreover, UGS analyses are mainly focused on public and vast green spaces, but seldom on informal, private, and interstitial ones, returning a myopic representation of urban green areas. Therefore, this study investigates the UGS spatial patterns within six Southern European cities, using the urban morphology analysis to assess all urban vegetated lands. Results revealed three main Urban Green Spatial Patterns (UGSPs): Fragmented, Compact, and Linear Distributions. UGSPs taxonomy represents a novelty in the urban morphology field and may have important implications for the ability to provide ecosystem services and, thus, human well-being.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations calls upon all signatory countries to localize its goals through National and Regional Sustainable Development Strategies (SDS). As in Italy the SDS constitute the framework of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of Plans and Programmes (P/P), the question arises as to whether the SEA can represent a fundamental tool for SDS. Although the mutual relationship between 2030 Agenda goals and SEA is recognized in the literature, there is a lack of focus on SDS and SEA. The SEA monitoring system is an essential instrument to redirect P/P trajectories, although it represents a constant weakness of the SEA process. Opening a discussion about the relationship between SDS and SEA, the present contribution aims at assessing SEA monitoring potential in mediating the 2030 Agenda SDS’s objectives into P/P. To this end, the study delves into the SEA monitoring structure through a qualitative and comparative approach, the feasibility of which is illustrated by an application to a set of spatial plans. Results show both good potential and the criticalities of the SEA monitoring system, which allow us to outline practical inputs to update SEA monitoring guidelines and new paths to foster the mutual relationship between the SDS and SEA.
<p>Soil is a non-renewable resource subject to increasing degradation favoured by human activities, such as the creation of impervious surfaces. Driven by increasing global population, soil sealing became a major challenge due to growing expansion and its impact on decreasing ability of soil to provide ecosystem services. In order to mitigate the environmental and social impacts of sealing, a worldwide interest in greening the cities have been noticed among politicians and stakeholders. Urban green areas provide benefits for the urban water cycle, namely through reducing stormwater runoff and flood hazard. The effectiveness of green areas inside the cities on runoff reduction, is still not well understood. This is partially due to the role of complex landscapes, including distinct urban types (e.g. residential vs commercial) and spatial patterns, on rainfall-runoff processes. This study aims to investigate the impact of different spatial patterns of sealing and green areas on surface runoff. Inspired on the spatial patterns of green areas observed in several Portuguese city centres crossed by rivers, three spatial patterns were investigated: dispersed gardens with a narrow green strip along the stream (SS); small gardens along contours, with a large green strip downslope (HD); linear gardens along the slope, with a large green strip downslope (VD). The impact of these three patterns was assessed through lysimeter experiments, using concrete blocks to simulate sealed surfaces and turfgrass to mimic gardens. All the configurations included 60% sealing and 40% greening, which is the maximum allowed in several Portuguese municipalities for urban areas. The lysimeters have an area of 1.24 m<sup>2</sup> and a depth of 0.15 m, filled with sandy loam soil (1.4 kg/m<sup>3</sup>) bellow the pavement and the turfgrass, and are placed with a 13&#186;-16&#186; slope. The lysimeters were installed in October 2019 and are subject to natural rainfall. After each storm, runoff and leachate measurements have been performed. Three soil moisture sensors were installed per lysimeter, at 10 cm depth, and provide continuous records with 5 min intervals. Rainfall data is collected with a rain gauge installed nearby, with a 5 min resolution. Results show that 40% turfgrass is able to cope with the majority of rainfall and runoff from upslope paved surfaces. Runoff coefficient is typically less than 2% and attained a maximum of 4% during the largest (40 mm) and more intensive storm (9.4&#160;mm/h). Although increasing soil moisture slightly enhances runoff generation, the spatial patterns investigated at small scale did not show significant impacts on rainfall-runoff processes. Turfgrass revealed effective to retain and infiltrate rainfall and runoff from paved surfaces. It may provide an adequate solution to mitigate the impact of urbanization on the water cycle and flood hazard within cities.</p>
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