The latest Report of the National Environmental Protection System (SNPA) reports that between 2019 and 2020 net soil consumption in Italy increased by 51.7 square kilometers, an increase that remains in line with what has happened in recent years, i.e. a value of 14 hectares per day, still very far from the Community objectives which should bring net consumption to zero by 2050.
One of the consequences of this trend, which sees new buildings, infrastructures, commercial, logistic and productive settlements replacing natural and agricultural areas, is the drastic reduction, if not the elimination, of the so-called "ecosystem services".
This term refers to those functions that nature offers for the benefit of man in terms of climate mitigation, storage of carbon dioxide, maintenance of biodiversity, the filter function operated by vegetation against polluting dust, etc.
At the same time, the UN World Urbanization Prospects Report indicates that depopulation will continue in centers with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants in favor of larger ones (>300,000 inhabitants). According to this report , the population living in urban areas in 2050 will increase by 7% compared to 2015.
If these two phenomena are considered jointly, it is evident the need, in addition to slowing down soil consumption, to also "compensate" for the consequent loss of ecosystem services , especially in urban areas where, given the aforementioned forecasts, the population concentration will continue to increase in the coming years.
Hence the growing attention from the world of research, from the Public Administration, but also from a community that is increasingly attentive to these issues, to solutions that can increase the ecosystem services of our cities, with the hope of making them ever more human-friendly, livable and healthy places.
An important role can be played by the certification tool, intended as a guarantee system towards consumers for the commitment of the administrations to valorise the ecosystem services generated by urban green areas.
With this in mind, some certification schemes have equipped themselves with specific tools to "measure" these services and monitor them over time.
In this way, for example, it is possible to guarantee to the community that during the validity of the certification in a certified Municipality there is no reduction of the green surface or of the tree cover index, or that particular prescriptions are adopted in favor of biodiversity or the scheduling of pruning interventions in compliance with the apical dominance of the trees and taking into account the periods in which the birds reproduce.
The main proposal of CSQA in this area is the Certification Standard of the Sustainable Management of Urban Green of PEFC Italy.
The standard is based on the requirements established by the International PEFC and declined and adapted at a national level by a Specific Working Group, also on the basis of the main references and standards existing at a national level for the management of green areas.
A further proposal concerns the law called "Health Parks" which will soon be applied.
It is a series of requisites that a green area must possess in order to be able to boast of this denomination.
These requirements are based on the various contributions relating on the one hand to the well-being of people and on the other to the arboreal, soil and landscape component up to the management component , so that the care of the greenery of our cities increasingly turns into care for the people who live there.
With this rule they can therefore enhance, measure and monitor the actions implemented by the administrators aimed at the suitability of green areas to the health of people in general, as well as of some particular categories, so that the care of the greenery of our cities is increasingly transformed into care for people.