Ispra Environmental Atlas

28% of Italian municipalities must rehabilitate degraded urban areas by 2031

Ispra's Environmental Atlas 2024 also highlights hydraulic hazard issues and the effects of climate change

27 November 2024

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By 2031, 28% of Italian municipalities will have to restore their degraded urban areas. The figure rises and even exceeds 40% if, in addition to urban centres and agglomerations, peri-urban municipalities are also added, amounting to 11.6% of the total. This is highlighted in one of the 'maps' of the Environmental Atlas 2024 by Ispra, which also highlights the problems related to hydraulic hazard and the effects of climate change.

The work of Ispra

It is a work that, as they point out from Ispra, also has the purpose of "supporting the government's path in the drafting of the National Restoration Plan" given that "the new edition of the Atlas takes into consideration what is provided for by the recent European Nature Restoration Law". That is, the regulation that came into force on 18 August requiring EU member states to ensure the restoration of at least 20 per cent of degraded land and marine areas, and by 2050 of all degraded ecosystems.

No loss of green space

Among the measures to be taken is to safeguard areas with vegetation. "The regulation requires that there be no net loss of green spaces and tree cover in urban areas until 2030," the researchers point out, "and a steady increase in their total area from 2031 onwards.

In this scenario, the municipalities "will have to ensure the maintenance of the overall extension, starting from 2024, and the increase, with restoration actions from 2031, of green areas and trees, only 2.3% of which are currently located in urban areas".

Not just cities, but sea and forests

That is not all, however, as restoration does not only concern urban areas. The programme also includes interventions in agricultural, forest, coastal, marine and riverine environments. "At present, 23.3 per cent of ecosystems suffer from high fragmentation, while almost a fifth, or 17.5 per cent, are very highly fragmented - . In 74% of the mapped habitats, environmental systems in which human activities are predominant, such as cultivation and built-up areas, account for more than half of the national territory, at 52%. Among the most natural environments, forest and grassland habitats are in the majority: here the percentage is 44%. The remaining part of the environmental mosaic, i.e. 4%, consists of coastal, wetland and rocky environments.

Hydraulic hazard

Then there is another aspect, and it concerns hydraulic hazards, a topic addressed in another table highlighting the most critical areas of the national territory. "On a national scale, it is estimated that fall in areas potentially floodable, for an average hazard scenario (P2), 11.8% of households, 13.4 % of businesses and 16.5% of cultural assets, with a consequent economic and social impact".

Floods and soil consumption

Exacerbating flooding phenomena, as the researchers point out, is the "progressive sealing of the soil and the reduction of flood expansion areas". And it is precisely to contain this phenomenon, where "soil consumption continues to grow, with a progressive decrease in the surface area destined for agricultural use, loss of biodiversity and increase in soil degradation" that "incisive restoration actions" are needed.

The role of climate

No less important is the issue of climate change. The study of these phenomena is considered indispensable when it comes to preparing 'strategies to counteract them'. And the scholars also give a few examples: "For the climate, it is possible to analyse the average annual temperature recorded in 2023, ranging between -1.9 °C at the Valtournenche - Cime Bianche (Aosta, 3018 m above sea level) station and 20.9 °C at the Lampedusa station," they point out, "or to note that 2023 was the second warmest year of the series since 1961, surpassed only by 2022, and the tenth consecutive year with a positive anomaly with respect to the norm.

The rains

This also includes the cumulative precipitation per year: "In 2023, it was about 4% lower overall than in the 30-year reference period 1991-2020, with more marked reductions in the western areas of the north and centre, in Sardinia, Sicily and the central-southern areas of Puglia and Calabria, the areas of the country that have been subject to persistent drought conditions over the past year".