The City of Milan joined the European Mission “Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities” to accelerate the transition process towards climate neutrality, committing to reduce its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2050.
The first key challenge for Milan is how to bring this high-level commitments down to the neighbourhood scale and then how to create districts that are also resilient and inclusive, as well as neutral, to achieve a more effective “climate transition” able to answer to the different critical issues and needs of the City, making more efficient use of resources.
From this perspective, some urban regeneration projects, pilot areas of UP2030, represent an unique opportunity to try to adopt this new integrated approach in the urban planning and design, especially by focusing on green as a means to achieve a multiplicity of environmental, social and economic objectives. Indeed, these projects can increase the availability and quality of urban green space and the implementation of “green” interventions (Nature-based solutions, depaving, forestations…), to improve the city’s adaptive capacity against heat islands and urban flooding, as well as mitigate climate change and offer more affordable and liveable spaces to citizens.
Within UP2030, the Municipality of Milan tries to envision a new approach for urban planning and design that considers the benefits of urban green spaces. The “Ecosystem Services Assessment” and the “City Resilience Index” tools are tested to improve decision-making processes concerning the design and implementation of green areas in urban regeneration projects, so that they can provide more ecosystem services for climate mitigation and adaptation while improving the environment and citizens’ quality of life. Furthermore, these tools can also support the City in evaluating and monitoring the environmental, social and economic benefits of the climate adaptation measures (depaving, forestations, NBS…) included in the municipal “Air and Climate Plan” and implemented in the urban context.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This project has received funding from the Horizon Innovation Actions under the grant agreement n° 101096405.