The Greener Europe. Ecosystem Services and Green Infrastructure for Resilient Cities

Rethinking smart cities with fewer impacts is part of the Green Deal, an action plan established by the EU for modern, resource-efficient and competitive economic growth, without net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Using a more resilient green is one of the elements on which to invest in the process of urban transformation. Undoubtedly, the landscape project in the past has always interpreted the needs of the society to which it belongs, proposed a cultural model to be followed and put into practice scientific innovations. Cities are evolving into intelligent super-organism and seal become capable of searching for opportunities of co-evolution within Urbansphere. The contribution of landscape architecture has become a necessity in solving the problems of contemporary society. It is no coincidence that world-renowned architects such as MVRDV and AMO/Koolhaas have based their research on green tech in order to use it in architectural projects. In the solution of various environmental problems the use of a set of green solutions, resilient and at different spatial scales from the city, the neighborhood, the block and the single building has become a necessity. The objective of this paper is to present some highlights strengths and weaknesses of green infrastructure projects in European cities, in progress or completed, which are based on the key concepts of sustainability, multifunctionality, adoption of Nature Based Solutions, increased ecosystem services and multiscale. The main strategies will be exemplified through the analysis of case studies at different scales. In terms of planning in Italy, the Action Plan for Urban Forestry in Prato (Florence), ‘i Raggi Verdi’ project for Expo 2015 and the current ForestaMi in Milan. Some specific interventions such as sustainable parks, rain gardens, drainage trenches, green roofs, green facades and systems for the collection of water in other European cities (Barcelona, Paris, London, Zurich).