Limiting Soil Sealing and Depaving: Local Actions for Regenerating Public Spaces to Build Green Infrastructures

Green Infrastructure (GI) is part of nature-based solutions to mitigate and adapt the local microclimate and climate of urban areas to climate change. In Italy, the lack of green elements in urban spaces of medium-sized cities calls for improvement of the urban ecological network due to citizens’ demands for better well-being and health. This chapter indicates the need to launch a national campaign to deseal over-paved public urban spaces and plant new green elements by 2030 as public space design actions. Limiting and then stopping soil sealing is the first condition to rethink public spaces in Italian, and even European, cities in a more holistic and resilient way. Secondly, encouraging citizen activism towards urban GI is strategic in resilient policies to improve connectivity and networking of the social fabric, as confirmed by the reported international and national cases. In this regard, GI is considered a multi-benefit solution that should be planned according to new digital tools in planning and architecture. The aim is to identify the most critical areas within the urban context that need to be depaved to accommodate green canopies, trees, green roofs, and other solutions with an approach potentially replicable in Italian and European cities.