Integrating green infrastructures in spatial planning: a scrutiny of regional tools in Sardinia, Italy

ABSTRACT

Extensive urbanization is a major cause of landscape fragmentation, depletes natural habitats and affects climate change. An efficient counteraction is offered by the realization of green infrastructures (GIs). GIs contribute to ecological connectivity, increase ecosystem resilience, address climate change, and improve people’s wellbeing. The inclusion of GIs in spatial planning processes is important for mainstreaming environmental considerations in the design of sustainable cities. Despite the interest in the integration of GIs in urban planning theories and tools, few scientific works have tackled this issue systematically. This study aims at clarifying if – and to what extent – GI concepts are included in regional plans and programs adopted in Sardinia (Italy). We scrutinized the documents by using quali-quantitative content analysis based on criteria rooted in scientific literature and figured out that few plans and programs incorporate a clear definition of GIs. Most of them incorporate implicit references to GIs. Our results confirm other scientific evidence and open to future research works applied to the Sardinian and to other regional and national contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Green infrastructures
• plans
• programs
• content analysis
• composite indicator

Acknowledgments

The Authors are supported by the research project “Paesaggi rurali della Sardegna: pianificazione di infrastrutture verdi e blu e di reti territoriali complesse [Rural landscapes of Sardinia: planning green and blue infrastructures and spatial complex networks]”, Regional Law n. 7/2007, Fund for Development and Cohesion, Autonomous Region of Sardinia.

Giovanna Calia gratefully acknowledges financial support of her scholarship for the Ph.D. program in Civil Engineering and Architecture (University of Cagliari) by P.O.R., F.S.E. Operational Programme 2014-2020, Autonomous Region of Sardinia.

Andrea De Montis and Antonio Ledda are supported by the University of Sassari through the Fondo di Ateneo per la Ricerca [Academic funding for research activities] 2020.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/MaGICLandscapes.html (last accessed 23 April 2021).