Ecosystem Services, Green Infrastructure and Spatial Planning

Ecosystem services and green infrastructure do not appear to inform spatial policies and plans. National governments hardly identify their ecological networks or make an effort to integrate them into their spatial policies and plans. Under this perspective, an important scientific and technical issue is to focus on preserving corridors for enabling species mobility and on achieving connectivity between natural protected areas. In this respect, this Special Issue takes a step forward insofar as it aims at proposing a theoretical and methodological discussion on the definition and implementation of ecological networks that, besides guaranteeing wildlife movements, also provide a wide range of ecosystem services. The social and economic profile of this question is also relevant since in the long run, savings in public spending (e.g., due to the reduced need for grey infrastructures aiming at contrasting soil erosion or at managing flood risk), savings in private spending (e.g., on water treatment costs) and the potential creation of green jobs are foreseeable. Moreover, indirect and less easily quantifiable social and health benefits (e.g., due to improved natural pollution abatement) are likely to occur as well

Geographic Information Systems and Decision Processes for Urban Planning: A Case Study of Rough Set Analysis on the Residential Areas of the City of Cagliari, Italy

In Italy, urban planning is based on the city Masterplan. This plan identifies the future urban organization and a system of zoning rules. Land-use policies are based on these rules. The zoning rules should synthesize environmental and spatial knowledge and policy decisions concerning the possible futures, with reference to the different urban functions. In this essay, a procedure of analysis of the city Masterplan of Cagliari, the regional capital city of Sardinia (Italy), is discussed and applied. This procedure is referred to the residential areas. The procedure tries to explain the urban organization of the housing areas using a system of variables based on the integration of different branches of knowledge concerning the urban environment. The decisions on the urban futures that the zoning rules entail are critically analyzed in terms of consistency with this knowledge system. The procedure consists of two phases. In the first phase, the urban environment is analyzed and described. This is done by defining and developing a geographic information system. This system utilizes a spatial analysis approach to figure out the integration of the residential areas into the urban fabric. The second phase is inferential. Based on the geographic information system developed in the first phase, a knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) technique, the rough set analysis (RSA), is applied. This technique allows to recognize the connection patterns between the urban knowledge system and the city planning decisions. The patterns, the decision rules, which come from the RSA implementation are important starting points for further investigation on the development of decision models concerning urban planning.

Sustainable Spatial Planning based on Ecosystem Services, Green Infrastructure and Nature-Based Solutions

Theoretical and methodological contributions as well as critical discussions on policy implementation characterize this Special Issue, with special reference to the following themes and research questions: 1) Integration of ecosystem services within spatial plans and strategic environmental assessment: “What function do ecosystem services play, or could play, within plan-making processes and strategic environmental assessments?”; “What are the most important challenges in putting integration into practice, and/or the most significant obstacles to achieving integration?”; and “What roles do scientific and technical expertise vs. community values and local knowledge play in integrating ecosystem services within spatial plans and environmental assessments?”; 2) Consideration and use of green infrastructure within spatial plans: “What function do green infrastructure play within plan-making processes?”; “What kinds of spatial plans are most suited for, or most effective in, designing and implementing green infrastructure?”; and “Does scale (local, regional, etc.) make a difference in the way green infrastructure are implemented within spatial plans?”; 3) Relationship between nature-based solutions and spatial plans: “Since nature-based solutions are increasingly promoted at the very strategic level, i.e., that of broad policies, and implemented at the very detailed level, i.e., that of projects, what is the role of nature-based solutions within spatial plans?” and “What tools are at planners’ disposal to effectively integrate nature-based solutions in planning processes and promote their use, especially in urban contexts?”

Does landscape protection really matter? An assessment of a local community's attitude through multicriteria analysis

Sardinian regional planning is characterized by a deep change that followed the approval of the Regional Landscape Plan (RLP). The RLP, which is ruled by the Italian National Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape, establishes the directions for future Sardinian regional planning. The actual sectoral, province and coastal city plans, and plans for protected areas, have to be changed in order to follow these directions. The adjustment process could be conflictual, since coastal cities, provinces and the administrative offices of protected areas, may possibly disagree with the regional administration about the conservative rules established by the RLP. In this view, this paper evaluates and analyzes the degree of consensus of the people living in the city of Sinnai, a small coastal city of Southern Sardinia, on four planning proposals concerning a portion of the coastal strip. Two of these proposals are consistent with the directions of the (conservative) RLP, and two are not. These four proposals are defined independently from each other by four junior planners of the school of urban planning of the University of Cagliari (Italy), who also propose a set of criteria for making a decision on which of the four proposals is the most suitable. The paper is based on two steps. First, proposals and criteria are defined. Second, a questionnaire is delivered to a random sample of the citizens of Sinnai. Each respondent has to give her/his own ranking of the chosen criteria, being informed that the criteria ranking is going to be used to choose the best projects among the four proposals. An analytic hierarchy process multicriteria analysis procedure will be used to draw conclusions on the experiment

SEA: Comparing Open Perspectives on Planning Sustainability in Sardinia (Italy) and Torbay (Devon,UK)

If Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to be effective and fulfil in the spirit of its governing EU Directive 2001/42/EC, cooperative and inclusive attitudes are essential. Cooperation should involve institutions, planning authorities and agencies which are involved in environmental assessment procedures. Inclusion implies favouring and catalysing local communities’ participation, that is participation of the public, in the planning/ assessment process.This paper discusses crucial aspects of SEA through a comparison of two case studies: the SEA of the Torbay Local Transport Plan 2006-2011 (LTPT) published by Torbay Council, and the Masterplan of the Port of the City of Cagliari, 2010 (MPPC) published by the Autorità Portuale di Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy, to provide evidence and lessons of good practice for both the UK and Italy. These include the assessment of:i. the endogeneity of the SEA process’ with respect to the planning process;ii. the sustainability and participation approaches;iii. the way available alternative planning options are compared;iv. the definition of the monitoring process

Ecosystem services, green infrastructure and spatial planning

Ecosystem services and green infrastructure do not appear to inform spatial policies and plans. National governments hardly identify their ecological networks and made an effort to integrate them into their spatial policies and plans. Under this perspective, an important scientific and technical issue is to focus on preserving corridors for enabling species mobility and on achieving connectivity between natural protected areas. In this respect, this special issue takes a step forward insofar as it aims at proposing a theoretical and methodological discussion on the definition and implementation of ecological networks that, beside guaranteeing wildlife movements, also provide a wide range of ecosystem services. The social and economic profile of this question is also relevant, since, in the long run, savings on public spending (e.g., due to reduced need for grey infrastructures aiming at contrasting soil erosion or at managing flood risk), savings on private spending (e.g., on water treatment costs) and potential green jobs creation are foreseeable. Moreover, indirect and less easily quantifiable social and health benefits (e.g., due to improved natural pollution abatement) are likely to occur as well

Anthropization processes and protection of the environment: an assessment of land cover changes in Sardinia, Italy

Protection of the environment is implemented through preventive and mitigating measures aimed at hindering anthropization processes. These measures may possibly entail the establishment of natural protected areas and sites where conservation measures are stated under the provisions of the “Habitats” Directive (no. 92/43/EEC) and Directive no. 2009/147/EC (the so-called “Birds” Directive, which modifies Directive no. 79/409/EEC). A straightforward way of assessing widespread anthropization processes consists in analyzing land cover changes related artificialization processes concerning natural areas. In this study, we assess land cover changes by using the simplified land cover taxonomy of the Land and Ecosystem Account classes and by analyzing transition processes; in addition, we propose a comparative appraisal of land cover changes occurring in areas characterized by different protection regimes, as follows: areas protected under the provisions of national or regional acts or regulations, sites belonging to the Natura 2000 network, that is protected under the Habitats or Birds Directives, and unprotected areas. We analyze anthropization processes that take place in Sardinia, an Italian insular region characterized by the presence of several national and regional protected areas and by a significant system of Natura 2000 sites, and assess land cover changes over a twelve-year period (2000-2012). The outcomes of our study put in evidence important lessons related to the definition and implementation of planning policies aiming at preventing anthropization processes in Sardinia. Moreover, the assessment methodology we implement in our study can be exported to other European regions in order to set up planning processes which fit the local features of land cover changes

The influence of Natura 2000 Sites on land-taking processes at the regional level: an empirical analysis concerning Sardinia (Italy)

This article focuses on the role that the provisions of the Natura 2000 Network play in affecting land-taking processes by looking at the Italian region of Sardinia, where strict rules on land development have been enforced since 1993 through regional landscape plans and where an extensive Natura 2000 Network, covering nearly 19% of the regional land mass, was established in compliance with Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora and Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds. The results and inferences of our study could be easily generalized to other European Union regions, provided that similar geographic datasets are available. By shedding some light on the relation between land take on the one hand, and nature conservation and landscape protection on the other, it is possible to enhance regional planning policies to prevent or hinder land-taking processes, and, by doing so, to help implementing the European Commission recommendation on no net land take by 2050 into the EU regional policies

An ontology of the appropriate assessment of Municipal master plans related to Sardinia (Italy)

This paper discusses some key points related to the ontology of the “Appropriate assessment” (under Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992, the so-called Habitats Directive) procedure concerning plans significantly affecting Natura 2000 sites. We study this ontology by discussing its implementation into the adjustment process of the Masterplans of the regional municipalities of Sardinia (Italy) to the Regional Landscape Plan (RLP), and put in evidence some important general observations, coming from the case study, concerning the utility and effectiveness of the ontological conceptual framework in order to help planners and decision makers understand and structure the assessment process of plans

An analysis of regional drivers of land take over a 50-year time span: The case of Sardinia, Italy

Land take is a significant issue in the European Union (EU), where, according to the Communication of the European Commission no. 571 of 2011, no net land take should be achieved by 2050 and impacts on land take should be taken under strict control. It is therefore vital not only to understand what the main drivers of land takes are, but also whether they act similarly over time. To this end we analyze land-taking processes over two time periods, 1960-1990 and 1990-2008,and take the region of Sardinia as a case study so as to investigate if the main drivers of land take identified in previous studies bring about similar, or different, effects in the two periods