LIFE-CLIVUT, ecosystem benefits of urban green areas: a pilot case study in Perugia (Italy)

doi:10.3832/ifor3908-015

LIFE-CLIVUT, ecosystem benefits of urban green areas: a pilot case study in Perugia (Italy)

Fabio Orlandi , Marco Fornaciari, Aldo Ranfa, Chiara Proietti, Luigia Ruga, Giuditta Meloni, Martina Burnelli, Flaminia Ventura

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 15, Issue 2, Pages 133-140 (2022)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor3908-015
Published: Apr 09, 2022 - Copyright © 2022 SISEF

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Trees have a great value in terms of ecosystem services in urban areas. LIFE CLIVUT is an “Information and Governance” European project developed in 4 Mediterranean Cities, with the goal of increasing the knowledge and awareness of citizens, especially young people, on the importance of the presence and good management of urban trees to mitigate the “Heat Island” effects. The data collected on the value of tree heritage and their future potential are used to design a green asset management strategy that will help urban planners adopt better practices for the mitigation of the effects of climate change in urban environments. This paper illustrates the results of tree census activity in four urban green areas of Perugia, Central Italy, that will be compared with those recorded in others cities involved in the project. Dendrometric parameters (diameter at breast height, tree height, first branch height, max and min crown width, crown shape and density) were recorded in situ using a dedicated software operating through a web app (“Clivut-Treedb”). The following ecosystem services were estimated: CO₂ sequestration, particulate matter (PM) absorption, shadow effect, biodiversity indexes. Several tree species characterized by important wood structures during their adult phase, such as Pinus pinea, Quercus ilex, Q. pubescens, Ulmus carpinifolia, Populus alba and Aesculus hippocastanum showed the highest estimates of CO₂ stored. Q. ilex was the most efficient species in particulate adsorption, showing similar estimates (about 60 g PM10 tree^-1 year^-1) in the 3 oldest green areas established in the 1980s, while the youngest plantations (dating back to 2005) absorbed about 10 g tree^-1 of PM10 per year. In terms of the potential cooling effect of trees, preliminary estimates of the shaded areas highlighted the difference between the older green areas (about 50% of shading) compared to the younger ones (about 15% and 8%).

Keywords

Urban Green Asset, Open Access WebApp, Tree Ecosystem Value, LIFE CLIVUT

Authors’ address

(1)

0000-0003-4021-8664
0000-0002-1289-7295
0000-0002-5585-7787
0000-0002-3434-7876
0000-0002-8513-1733
0000-0001-5047-2872

0000-0002-8867-9825
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, I-06121 Perugia (Italy)

Corresponding author

Fabio Orlandi
fabio.orlandi@unipg.it

Citation

Orlandi F, Fornaciari M, Ranfa A, Proietti C, Ruga L, Meloni G, Burnelli M, Ventura F (2022). LIFE-CLIVUT, ecosystem benefits of urban green areas: a pilot case study in Perugia (Italy). iForest 15: 133-140. - doi: 10.3832/ifor3908-015

Academic Editor

Raffaele Lafortezza

Paper history

Received: Jun 21, 2021
Accepted: Feb 05, 2022

First online: Apr 09, 2022
Publication Date: Apr 30, 2022
Publication Time: 2.10 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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