Combining the Conservation of Biodiversity with the Provision of Ecosystem Services in Urban Green Infrastructure Planning: Critical Features Arising from a Case Study in the Metropolitan Area of Rome

Abstract

A large number of green infrastructure (GI) projects have recently been proposed, planned and implemented in European cities following the adoption of the GI strategy by the EU Commission in 2013. Although this policy tool is closely related to biodiversity conservation targets, some doubts have arisen as regards the ability of current urban GI to provide beneficial effects not only for human societies but also for the ecological systems that host them. The aim of this work is to review the features that should be considered critical when searching for solutions that simultaneously support biodiversity and guarantee the provision of ecosystem services (ES) in urban areas. Starting from a case study in the metropolitan area of Rome, we highlight the role of urban trees and forests as proxies for overall biodiversity and as main ecosystem service providers. We look beyond the individual functional features of plant species and vegetation communities to promote the biogeographic representativity, ecological coherence and landscape connectivity of new or restored GI elements.

Local Scale Prioritisation of Green Infrastructure for Enhancing Biodiversity in Peri-Urban Agroecosystems: A Multi-Step Process Applied in the Metropolitan City of Rome (Italy)

“…Apart from basic maps with a high spatial resolution, a combination of in-depth knowledge of vegetation potential, composition of native communities and biology of native species is necessary for the proper design of GI actions. This combination allows the effective foster of environmental benefits and the prevention of trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and ES provision [75,118], also in a transitional peri-urban context.…”

“…Additionally, a list of woody species to be primarily adopted for restoration actions was compiled. In order to effectively respond to the biodiversity objective of the GI, the list included trees and shrubs that are native of the Roman Area Ecoregional Subsection and are coherent with the potential natural vegetation of the site [43,[74][75][76]. Regarding the enhancement of ecological connectivity, plant dispersal capacity and positive relationships with faunal biodiversity were taken into account.…”

Research on Ecological Infrastructure from 1990 to 2018: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…"Biodiversity" ranked fourth, fifth and fourth in title words, author keywords, and keywords plus, respectively. Habitat fragmentation and loss caused by urbanization severely impact species richness and genetic diversity, thus affecting the goods and services provided by ecosystems, which became urgent issues for policymakers and planners [87][88][89]. Biologists and ecologists took EI as the carrier to counter habitat fragmentation, protect biodiversity, and maintain ecological balance [90][91][92][93][94][95].…”

Spatial identification of conservation priority areas for urban ecological land: An approach based on water ecosystem services

“…With increasing global awareness about ecological security and sustainability (Q. Lin, Mao, Wu, Li, & Yang, ; Peng, Yang, et al, ; Runfola et al, ; Zhang, Peng, Liu, & Wu, ), research on identification and protection of important urban ecological land has flourished over recent years. For example, the method of ordered weighted averaging was used to identify priority areas for forest restoration with the objective to improve water resource conservation (Vettorazzi & Valente, ); optimal conservation planning of multiple hydrological ecosystem services was conducted considering land use and climate change (M. Fan, Shibata, & Wang, ); the conservation and management of urban green space were reviewed considering the biodiversity of terrestrial fauna species (Łopucki & Kiersztyn, ); green infrastructure was designed on the premise of spatial conservation prioritization (Snäll, Lehtomäki, Arponen, Elith, & Moilanen, ); and urban green infrastructure planning was explored combining the conservation of biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services (Capotorti, Vico, Anzellotti, & Celesti‐Grapow, ). Among the abovementioned studies, whether the restoration and protection of urban ecological land, the identification and management of urban green space, or the planning and design of urban green infrastructure were all based on prioritizing the protection of ecologically important areas.…”