Progettare Infrastrutture verdi per la regolazione del microclima e il benessere urbano: una valutazione del servizio ecosistemico Urban Cooling

Contemporary cities are strongly affected by the Urban Heat Island phenomenon, which is becoming one of the most significant climate change-related hazards with huge consequences for health and human well- being. The adoption of and Ecosystem Services (ES) approach could support the definition of urban design parameters and criteria for mitigating heatwaves effect while decreasing high temperatures in urban areas and enhancing territorial resilience. The ES cooling capacity has been modelled using the software InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) estimating possible sites within the Milan Metropolitan context that could host possible Nature-based solutions for improving urban comfort. The paper provides a research method to make cities healthy by designing heat-resilient public spaces against climate change. The results support urban planning processes by providing operational guidelines for the design of Green and blue infrastructures. Besides, the proposed approach defines practical indications that make it replicable in other contexts.