SISTEMI INFORMATIVI PER L'AMBIENTE E IL TERRITORIO

Module SERVIZI ECOSISTEMICI PER LA PROGETTAZIONE TERRITORIALE E URBANA

The course is offered to 3rd year students and aims at delivering a project proposal to respond to some specific needs of transformation on an urban scale.
The teaching offer is based on the knowledge acquired by students during the previous course of Urban and Regional Planning and relative Studios.
The didactic activities guide students along a process of low-scale analysis of the landscape, and provide them with the essential elements for understanding the methods of construction of a project based on the integration of the plurality of components that characterize urban contexts. The course will make use of different Remote Sensing and GIS tools, that students will study during the parallel course "Sistemi Informativi per la Pianificazione Territoriale"
Particular importance will be given to innovative approaches to urban and landscape planning and design, such as the use of the concept of Ecosystem Services s to support planning and design solutions.

The course foresees a series of introductory lectures on the course' topics and individual work by the students, under the supervision of the Teacher. In the classroom, students proceed with the development of the project on an area that will be assigned to them at the beginning of the course, with the aim of minimizing the work to be done outside the STUDIO hours. The STUDIO DOES NOT FORESEE intermediate deadlines within its lifetime: 

The Studio will be organized so that students will be able to complete the work within the class hours

Students must formally enroll in the course and attendance at the course is compulsory for 70% of the lessons.

Students must formally register for the course through the dedicated STUDIUM page.

The "Servizi Ecosistemici per la Progettazione Territoriale ed Urbana" course is part of the integrated course in "Sistemi Informativi per l'Ambiente e Territorio" together with the course "Sistemi Informativi per la Pianificazione Territorial", held in parallel in the same semester. The two courses aim to provide students with theoretical-practical tools for the design of urban-territorial transformation scenarios aimed at maximizing the Ecosystem Services provided within a certain study area.

The study area covered by Course will include a portion of a municipal area or with an entire municipality.
Through the analysis of the planning tools, the understanding of spatial processes of both urban and territorial value, as well as the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of the contexts analyzed, students will elaborate a proposal of a project mainly aimed at improving the overall level of sustainability of the study area.
The theoretical insights of the Studio will cover the following topics:

• Ecosystem services and their relevance for spatial planning and design
• Methodological approaches for the evaluation of ecosystem services
• The integration between ecosystem services and urban and territorial planning
• The relationship between city and countryside and the planning of new forms of urban and peri-urban agriculture for metropolitan contexts
• Urban regeneration programmes
• Nature-based solutions and sustainable drainage systems for mitigation and adaptation to climate change

The project elaboration phase will be preceded by a series of territorial analyzes involving the use of remote sensing techniques, which will be presented in the module "Geomatica per la pianificazione Territoriale,", which will be carried out in parallel in the same semester.

The project proposals will also be accompanied by general economic studies that quantify the economic resources necessary for their implementation.
The main, but not the only, papers to be produced within the course include:

• Land use
• Land Cover
• Ecosystem services assessment
• Infrastructural assets
• Evaluations and metaproject
• Project design

References used in the Studio  will include a collection of scientific articles and book chapters that will be made available on the dedicated Studium page.

Examples include:

Gómez-Baggethun, E.; Barton, D.N. Classifying and valuing ecosystem services for urban planning. Ecol. Econ. 2013, 86, 235–245.

·       K. Grunewald, O. Bastian, J. Louda , A. Arcidiacono, P. Brzoska , M. Bue , N.I. Cetin, C. Dworczykh, L. Dubovac, A. Fitch , L. Jones, D. La Rosa, A. Mascarenhas, S. Ronchi, M.A. Sschlaepfe, D. Sikorskan, A. Tezer (2021). Lessons learned from implementing the ecosystem services concept in urban planning. Ecosystem Services, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101273

La Rosa S.D. (2015). Il ruolo delle Aree Non Urbanizzate per la fornitura di Servizi Ecosistemici in contesti  periurbani. In Munafò M., Marchetti M., eds “Recuperiamo terreno. Analisi e prospettive per la gestione sostenibile della risorsa suolo”, Franco Angeli Milano. ISBN: 978889172291

·       

Nordin, A. C., H. I. Hanson, and J. Alkan Olsson. (2017). Integration of the ecosystem services concept in planning documents from six municipalities in southwestern Sweden. Ecology and Society 22(3):26. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09420-220326

Sirakaya A, Cliquet A, Harris J (2018) Ecosystem services in cities: towards the international legal protection of ecosystem services in urban environments. Ecosyst Serv 29:205–212. https ://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecose r.2017.01.001

·       

Spyra M., La Rosa D., Zasada I., Sylla M., Shkaruba A. (2020). Governance of ecosystem services trade-offs in peri-urban landscapes. Land Use Policy, 104617, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104617

· 

Woodruff SC, BenDor TK (2016) Ecosystem services in urban planning: comparative paradigm and guidelines for high quality plans. Landscape and Urban Planning 152:90–100

The exam consists of an oral discussio of the project, to verify the general understanding of the topics covered.

Students who have attended 70% (50% for working students) of the hours of lectures and laboratory and who have completed the analytical and design documents necessary to fully define the assigned topic will be admitted to the final examination.

Methodological and theoretical approaches for the definition of design scenarios

Definition of Ecosystem Services

Methods for the quantification and evaluation of ecosystem services

Ecosystem Services and Urban Planning

Ecosystem services and Strategic Environmental Assessment