Davide Geneletti

Università degli Studi di Trento | UNITN · Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering

Performance-based planning is advocated as a promising alternative to more common prescriptive approaches (e.g., traditional zoning), to manage the complexity of current urban development in a flexible and effective way. The aim of this paper is to develop and test an innovative performance-based planning approach built around the assessment of eco...

Urban planning is the most relevant decision-making process affecting urban regulating ecosystem services. However, a clear understanding of the effects of planning decisions on both the supply and demand of urban regulating ecosystem services is still lacking. To support planners in enhancing urban regulating ecosystem services, there is a need to...

This open access book presents current knowledge about ecosystem services (ES) in urban planning, and discusses various urban ES topics such as spatial distribution of urban ecosystems, population distribution, and physical infrastructure properties. The book addresses all these issues by: i) investigating to what extent ecosystem services are curr...

Rapid urbanization in African metropolises like the Greater Asmara Area, Eritrea, poses numerous environmental challenges, including soil sealing, loss of vegetation cover, threats to protected natural areas, and climate change, among others. Mapping and assessing ecosystem services, particularly analyzing their spatial and temporal distribution is...

Geodesign supports collaborative urban planning by managing ‘boundaries’ between diverse knowledge holders. However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence of its contribution to ‘boundary work’. This paper aims to evaluate how a geodesign process facilitates knowledge co-production through boundary work and to assess the scientific credibility,...

Urban plans can promote the implementation and scaling up of nature-based solutions (NbS) through the adoption of specific policy instruments. These can be applied to different typologies of NbS interventions, depending on the transformations allowed by the plan and property regime of the different areas. Through a review of real-world applications...

Aiming at understanding the role of plural values in decision-making, the IPBES Values Assessment defined nature valuation broadly as including biophysical, economic and socio-cultural assessments, including ecosystem service assessment. IPBES reviews of scientific literature revealed a lack of documentation of uptake by stakeholders across method...

While European regions face a range of different climate hazards, little is known about how these differences affect local climate adaptation planning. We present an analytical framework for evaluating local climate adaptation plans (LCAPs) and apply it to 327 cities in 28 countries across different European regions. To do this, we use statistical...

In natural and altered environments, the Ecosystem Services (ES) provided by the presence of vegetation, especially regulating ES such as climate regulation and air pollutant removal, are essential to improve human health and well-being. In this study, we focused on a tropical-subtropical river basin which covers urban, peri-urban and rural landsca...

Urban greening is increasingly advocated as a strategy to counteract the loss of green spaces and associated ecosystem services due to urban densification. However, how to combine greater population density with more green spaces is still a topic of debate. Recent studies revealed cases of cities that became overall denser and greener during the la...

Cities across Mediterranean Europe face common climatic threats. They are highly vulnerable and very likely to suffer losses and damages due to heat waves, droughts, wildfires, landslides, and extreme coastal events. To this date, however, there is no systematic understanding of how cities in Mediterranean Europe are preparing to adapt to these imp...

In recent years, transfer of development rights (TDR) programs have become widespread as a mechanism for implementing urban transformations and achieving planning goals. As market-based instruments, they facilitate land acquisition whilst avoiding compulsory purchases and minimizing public spending. By promoting urban transformation, TDR programs a...

The Mitigation Hierarchy is the sequence of actions (avoid-minimise-restore-compensate) to anticipate and avoid adverse impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. The avoid or prevent stage is the first and most important stage of the mitigation hierarchy in which developers anticipate adverse impacts on biodiversity before actions or decision...

Metropolitan areas are being challenged by the disparity between growing societal needs and dwindling natural resource provision. Understanding the supply-demand mismatches of ecosystem services (ES) and their drivers is essential for landscape planning and decision-making. However, integrating such information into spatial planning remains challen...

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are gaining relevance as sustainable urban actions because of their potential to provide multiple benefits in the form of ecosystem services (ES), and thus mitigate urban challenges. This paper presents an original semi-dynamic modelling framework that simultaneously considers i) ES supply and demand dynamics, ii) negat...

The mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services (MAES) is key to inform sustainable policy and decision-making at national and sub-national levels. Responding to the paucity of research in sub-Saharan Africa, we conduct a pilot study for Eritrea that aims to map and assess the temporal dynamics of key ecosystems and their services. We r...

This study investigates the climate emergency declaration (CED) movement in cities and its effects and synergies with local climate planning. Urban areas are experiencing a wide range of climate-induced extreme events, particularly those located in the Mediterranean hotspot. The focus is on Italian cities, which have only recently become key player...

Context For nearly three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted human well-being and livelihoods, communities, and economies in myriad ways with consequences for social-ecological systems across the planet. The pandemic represents a global shock in multiple dimensions that has already, and is likely to continue to have, far-reaching effects on...

There is a high growing demand for regulating ecosystem services such as air quality regulation, regulation of air temperature and humidity, and flood regulation, in urban ecosystems which is important for urban planning. A comprehensive review of the current studies of the urban ecosystem, regulating ecosystem services, and their connection with u...

Defining and measuring progress in adaptation are important questions for climate adaptation science, policy, and practice. Here, we assess the progress of urban adaptation planning in 327 European cities between 2005 and 2020 using three ‘ADAptation plan Quality Assessment’ indices, called ADAQA-1/ 2/ 3, that combine six plan quality principles. H...

Environmental justice (EJ) raises concerns about just allocating environmental harms and goods. It has been mainly analysed from a distributive lens through indicators and screening tools that have underlined communities' proximity to pollution and risk sources. However, for urban areas, existing gaps relate to the need for more comprehensive asses...

Human population (often treated as overpopulation) has long been blamed as the main cause of biodiversity loss. Whilst this simplistic explanation may seem convenient, understanding the accuracy of the statement is crucial to develop effective priorities and targets to manage and reverse ongoing biodiversity loss. If untrue, the assertion may under...

Mainstreaming of ecosystem service approaches has been proposed as one path toward sustainable development. Meanwhile, critics of ecosystem services question if the approach can account for the multiple values of ecosystems to diverse groups of people, or for aspects of inter- and intra-generational justice. In particular, an ecosystem service appr...

Environmental justice (EJ) addresses the unequal distribution of environmental goods and harms and promotes people's right to be involved in environmental decision-making. In recent years, EJ considerations have expanded to the use of Nature-based solutions (NbS) in urban areas, mainly how their planning and implementation can impact human well-bei...

Nature-based solutions are increasingly promoted in regional and national policies because of their potential to contribute toward multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and promote resilient responses to climate change. However, several barriers continue to limit the effective implementation of NbS at local scales and hinder uptake by practi...

Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) has been widely applied on the European Union (EU) mainland, whereas the EU Overseas entities still bear potential for implementation. This paper presents novel applications of the MAES procedure in the EU Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories ("EU Overseas"). Eight c...

Spatio-temporal density trends are considered key indicators of urban development. However, similar density trends may hide different drivers. This study investigates the density trends of 331 European cities between 2006 and 2018 and the underlying trends in residential area and population, broken down into natural change and net migration. The an...

Managing stormwater is a major concern in cities characterized by high risk of floods and water pollution. Nature-based solutions (NbS) have emerged as a valuable alternative for managing stormwater through the provision of runoff mitigation, stormwater treatment, and other ecosystem services (ES). The development of these solutions in urban areas...

In view of the ongoing pandemic crisis the socio-economic and environmental inequalities within cities have increased. Among others, the presence of high-quality green spaces and elements has become a more pressing need, exacerbating existing inequalities. The knowledge of urban ecosystem conditions can support different types of policy questions w...

This paper analyses the occurrence of governance innovations for forest ecosystem service (FES) provision in the forestry sector in Europe and the factors that influence innovation development. Based on a European-wide online survey, public and private forest owners and managers representing different property sizes indicate what type of governance...

Nature-based solutions (NBS) represent the most recent of several "greening" concepts proposed to support spatial planning and decision-making towards sustainable metropolitan regions. Despite similarities, the concepts stem from different disciplines and policy arenas and reflect various models of people-nature relations. This paper aims to analyz...

Forests are key components of European multifunctional landscapes and supply numerous forest ecosystem services (FES) fundamental to human well-being. The sustainable provision of FES has the potential to provide responses to major societal challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, or rural development. To identify suitable strategies...

This study analyzed the interactions among a set of ecosystem services (ES) and derived ES bundles in the Headwaters of Coal River West Virginia (WV), in the Central Appalachians, an area historically characterized by surface mining and coal extraction. ES were modeled using the InVEST system, while a custom model was used to link water quality to...

Urban greening policies and measures have recently shown a high potential impact on the design and reshaping of the built environment, especially in urban regeneration processes. This book provides insights on analytical methods, planning strategies and shared governance tools for successfully integrating Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in the urban p...

During the COVID-19 emergency, cities around the world introduced measures to guarantee physical distancing that restricted access to urban parks and green areas, with potentially negative effects on citizens’ health and wellbeing. This study aims at providing insights to manage access to urban green space in physical distancing times, when the ris...

This study investigates how land use and climate changes affect water yield ecosystem service (ES) in the Sirvan River basin, located in Iran’s Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces. By detecting land-use and climatic parameter changes in the past, their future evolution were modeled by scenario making. For this purpose, we developed two land-use scen...

Nature-based solutions (NbS) in cities are actions that utilize ecosystem processes of green-blue infrastructure to safeguard or enhance the delivery of ecosystem services and contribute to address urban challenges. The identification of spatial opportunities for NbS can support the development of concrete options of NbS planning and implementation...

The aim of this chapter is to present and test a performance-based planning approach based on the information produced by ecosystem services (ES) mapping and assessment at the urban scale. The city of Trento in Italy is used as a case study. The planning approach allows to estimate the impacts of proposed urban transformations and to define for the...

Water resources modeling can provide valuable information to planners. In this respect, water yield is an ecosystem service with significant roles in the sustainability of societies and ecosystems. The present study aimed to model the supply and demand of water resources and identify their scarcity and stress in the Sirvan river basin. For this pur...

Forests are increasingly recognized for their role, importance and multifunctionality in terms of provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services they provide. Even if timber production remains the most economically valuable provisioning service in Primiero, the importance of and need for multifunctionality of forests is acknowledged. This...

This article presents teaching and learning material from three strategically designed ReNature Horizon 2020 project training activities. A total of twelve presentations covering different aspects of NbS implementation are presented with this article. Additionally, this article also includes materials produced by learners, throughout their work wit...

While ecosystem service (ES) assessments become a more and more important source of knowledge, there is a need for synthesis approaches that make the results usable to support decisions. Effective synthesis approaches can reduce the information burden produced by multiple ES assessments and help decision-makers to compare alternative options and to...

La capacità adattativa ai cambiamenti climatici implica la capacità di modificare sistemi ecologici, sociali o economici per ridurre i potenziali danni o aumentare i benefici. Il contributo mostra una procedura sperimentale che, in accordo con le linee guida della Strategia Nazionale di Adattamento ai Cambiamenti Climatici, integra aspetti di gover...

As recognized by the Paris Climate Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), local and subnational regions are crucial actors to achieve international mitigation and adaptation commitments. Scientific literature and empirical evidence point at multi-level climate governance as a crucial factor to engage subnat...

Nature based solutions (NbS) have the potential to build climate resilience and tackle key societal challenges while also providing multiple co-benefits to biodiversity and human well-being. The demand for nature-based innovation is strongly felt in Malta – a small island state, with the highest population density in the European Union. Learning an...

In Europe, regions in the Mediterranean area share common characteristics in terms of high sensitivity to climate change impacts. Does this translate into specificities regarding climate action that could arise from these Mediterranean characteristics? This paper sheds light on regional and local climate mitigation actions of the Mediterranean Euro...

The deployment of nature-based solutions in cities (through the creation of new green spaces) is promoted as a sustainable approach that support the stormwater management in dealing with the effects of climate change and increasing urbanization, while providing additional social, economic, and environmental benefits. These solutions operate many di...

The integration of ecosystem service (ES) knowledge into decision-making processes is increasingly endorsed by various policies and initiatives, with spatial planning targeted as one of the most relevant fields. Learning and feeding back from existing experiences is therefore a fundamental step to ensure appropriate and useful support by ES science...

Mediterranean islands face significant environmental challenges due to their high population density, reliance on imports, and water scarcity, exacerbated by increasing risks from climate change. Nature-based solutions (NbS) could address these challenges sustainably and with multiple benefits, but their uptake in policy and planning is limited, an...

Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are increasingly promoted to support sustainable and resilient urban planning. However, design and planning urban NBS targeted at the needs of the local context require knowledge about the causal relationships between NBS, ecosystem services (ES) and urban challenges (UC) This paper aims at contributing to this knowledg...

Background Land use and land cover changes in urbanized watersheds of developing countries like Ethiopia are underpinned by the complex interaction of different actors, driving forces, and the land itself. Land conversion due to residential development, economic growth, and transportation is identified as the most serious environmental pressure on...

Cities across the globe recognise their role in climate mitigation and are acting to reduce carbon emissions. Knowing whether cities set ambitious climate and energy targets is critical for determining their contribution towards the global 1.5 °C target, partly because it helps to identify areas where further action is necessary. This paper present...

This chapter presents the mapping of ecosystem service hotspots in the city of Trento, in the Italian Alps, and discusses the possible uses of the results to support the drawing of the new Urban Plan. Hotspots are defined as areas characterized by high levels of provision of multiple services. Particularly, the following ecosystem services were sel...

In Padova, the municipal department of green infrastructure monitors the urban forest through a continuously updated database that stores information about locations, species, dimensions, health conditions, and management of more than 47,000 trees. The aim of the research presented in this chapter was to support urban forest planning and management...

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) can support decision-makers in constructing more sustainable plans, programs, and policies (PPPs). To be more coherent with new frontiers of sustainable cities, PPPs need to include conservation objectives and to increase ecosystem service (ES) strategies. The ES concept is not intrinsic to the SEA process;...

There has been a strong quest for mapping and assessing ecosystem services (ES) to support governance. Yet, the institutional landscape that governs ES provision across multiple contexts has received less attention. We fill this research gap by developing and operationalising a framework for the analysis of policy documents that address European fo...

Forests cover about 40 % of the European Union (EU), providing a wide spectrum of invaluable ecosystem services to more than half a billion people. In order to protect and harness this crucial asset, EU policies are advancing multifunctional management. This study lays a basis for such an effort by mapping the supply of key forest ecosystem service...