Contested novel ecosystems: Socio-ecological processes and evidence from Italy

Trentanovi, Giovanni; Zinzani, Andrea; Bartoletti, Roberta; Montanari, Federico

doi:10.1016/j.envdev.2021.100658

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Echoing previous literature for both urban forests more broadly (e.g., Lawrence et al, 2013;Campbell, 2017), hybrid spaces (Trentanovi et al, 2021) and urban forest patches (Wilkes-Allemann et al, 2015;Heneghan et al, 2019), our analysis illustrated an interplay of actors, institutional and resource-based factors, historical legacies, and activating events unique to each location. Each governance arrangement contained a unique set of actors that have led to diverse ways to build, support, and innovate (e.g., Svendsen and Campbell, 2008;Tacconi, 2011;Ordóñez et al, 2019).…”

Section: Cross-location Analysissupporting

confidence: 55%

A tale of urban forest patch governance in four eastern US cities

Morzillo

Campbell

King³

et al. 2022

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

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Section: Cross-location Analysissupporting

confidence: 55%

A tale of urban forest patch governance in four eastern US cities

Morzillo

Campbell

King³

et al. 2022

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

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“…The initiative can also come from civil society itself, members of whom can play a fundamental role in the recognition and enhancement of informal wild spaces. An Italian study shows how four former industrial and military sites, where spontaneous vegetation has been growing for over 20 years, have been turned into sites of ecological interest and recreational use by various socio‐environmental movements (Trentanovi et al ., 2021 b ). These movements are made up of a network of informal actors including citizen groups and formal actors such as non‐profit associations with official status.…”

Section: Urban Wilding In the Fabric Of Just Citiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These movements are made up of a network of informal actors including citizen groups and formal actors such as non‐profit associations with official status. The mobilisation of communities in these areas has made it possible to change the institutional public discourse on the ecological roles of these areas, while empowering these communities in terms of socio‐cultural identity, social relations and power to negotiate with institutions (Trentanovi et al ., 2021 b ). With the aim of scaling up, the various local citizen actions can be integrated into a mosaic governance network that is animated and coordinated by local government to facilitate spaces for deliberation (Buijs et al ., 2019).…”

Section: Urban Wilding In the Fabric Of Just Citiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wilding cities for biodiversity and people: a transdisciplinary framework

Bonthoux,

Chollet

2024

Biological Reviews

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Accelerating urbanisation and associated lifestyle changes result in loss of biodiversity and diminished wellbeing of people through fewer direct interactions and experiences with nature. In this review, we propose the notion of urban wilding (the promotion of autonomous ecological processes that are independent of historical land‐use conditions, with minimal direct human maintenance and planting interventions) and investigate its propensity to improve biodiversity and people–nature connections in cities. Through a large interdisciplinary synthesis, we explore the ecological mechanisms through which urban wilding can promote biodiversity in cities, investigate the attitudes and relations of city dwellers towards urban wild spaces, and discuss the integration of urban wilding into the fabric of cities and its governance. We show that favouring assembly spontaneity by reducing planting interventions, and functional spontaneity by limiting maintenance practices, can promote plant diversity and provide ecological resources for numerous organisms at habitat and city scales. These processes could reverse biotic homogenisation, but further studies are needed to understand the effects of wilding on invasive species and their consequences. From a socio‐ecological perspective, the attitudes of city dwellers towards spontaneous vegetation are modulated by successional stages, with grassland and woodland stages preferred, but dense shrubby vegetation stages disliked. Wild spaces can diversify physical interactions with nature, and enrich multi‐sensory, affective and cognitive experiences of nature in cities. However, some aspects of wild spaces can cause anxiety, feeling unsafe, and the perception of abandonment. These negative attitudes could be mitigated by subtle design and maintenance interventions. While nature has long been thought of as ornamental and instrumental in cities, urban wilding could help to develop relational and intrinsic values of nature in the fabric of cities. Wildness and its singular aesthetics should be combined with cultural norms, resident uses and urban functions to plan and design urban spatial configurations promoting human–non‐human cohabitation. For urban wilding to be socially just and adapted to the needs of residents, its implementation should be backed by inclusive governance opening up discussion forums to residents and urban workers. Scientists can support these changes by collaborating with urban actors to design and experiment with new wild spaces promoting biodiversity and wellbeing of people in cities.

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“…In the Mediterranean region, research over the past two decades has centered on the shared challenges related to the rapid pace of urban landcover expansion, landscape homogenization, and the loss of green space in the contemporary city (Salvati and Gargiulo Morelli, 2014). As the Mediterranean city transforms into a more dispersed form of urbanism, urban geographers have recognized that farmland is often the first landcover to be displaced, with other valuable forms of green space like forests, wetlands, and other seminatural landcovers also transformed, impacting the city's vulnerability and resilience (Bouraoui, 2003;Aguilar et al, 2006;Bouraoui and Vidal, 2008;Catalań et al, 2008;Salvati et al, 2012;Salvati et al, 2013;Dıáz-Pacheco and Garcıá-Palomares, 2014;Tomao et al, 2017;Trentanovi et al, 2021;Quintas-Soriano et al, 2022;Valente et al, 2022). Recent work in Greece (Salvati et al, 2013) and Italy (Salvati et al, 2012) compared the impacts of compact urban growth vs. sprawl on landcover change from 1960 to the early 2000s in Attica and Rome, respectively.…”

Section: The Mediterranean City Green Space and Local Distinctivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fleeting fields of Zadar (Croatia): characterizing millennial-scale urban landcover change, green space, and resilience into the twenty first century

Zaro,

Blaće,

Baraka Perica

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Cities are a growing factor in global change today, but urbanization as a process has played a significant role in shaping our planet’s environments for millennia. Exploring the longevity or persistence of cityscapes can therefore reveal qualities that may have strengthened urban sustainability or resilience over long periods. In the Mediterranean, many ancient cities lie in ruin and are fully formed archaeological sites, while others reflect continuous growth and expansion into the modern era, often replacing what has traditionally been a rural mosaic of green space with a more homogenized urban landcover. Green spaces like cultivated lands, urban forests, recreational parks, and green belts are essential components of urban resilience, as they build adaptive capacity by improving human health and livelihoods, reducing surface runoff and erosion, and mitigating urban heat island effects, among others. Protection of green space in urban and peri-urban contexts also offers greater capacity to transform in the face of uncertain change. This paper centers on the ancient city of Zadar along Croatia’s Adriatic coast to characterize broad millennial-scale changes in urban landcover and green space. The results suggest that the distribution of urban landcover and green space appears to have been fairly stable for much of Zadar’s 3,000-year history, which arguably played a significant role in its persistence into the present era. However, the pace and scale of urban development, as well as the corresponding losses of green space, have accelerated from the mid-twentieth century onward, depleting a major source of socioecological resilience that has benefitted the city since the Iron Age. Archaeological and historical fields of study provide a deep temporal context to these contemporary challenges and are well-suited to identify and promote the locally and historically distinctive character of surviving green spaces. Land use legacies stemming from Roman surveying and historic field clearance practices around Zadar have resulted in one of the most distinctive and well-preserved physical manifestations of ancient and historic land use in the Mediterranean. Recognition of their cultural significance, even in their diminished state, would add further value for their protection and continued capacity toward urban resilience in the next century.

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Contested novel ecosystems: Socio-ecological processes and evidence from Italy

Cited by 11 publications

References 32 publications

A tale of urban forest patch governance in four eastern US cities

A tale of urban forest patch governance in four eastern US cities

Wilding cities for biodiversity and people: a transdisciplinary framework

Fleeting fields of Zadar (Croatia): characterizing millennial-scale urban landcover change, green space, and resilience into the twenty first century

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