Nature-based stormwater strategies and urban environmental quality

Healthy hydrological systems control stormwater runoff, allow for groundwater recharge, and provide water quality. On the contrary, today in urban environments impervious surfaces have increased stormwater runoff, affecting ecosystems and leading to hydrogeological instability and flooding risks. In particular, development and climate change affect water resources in terms of quantity and quality, altering the functions of many ecosystems with a negative effect also on well-being of people. Mitigation and adaptation strategies, which limit the effects of climate change and resource consumption, are crucial to achieve sustainable development in cities and improve environmental quality. The implementation of vegetated green and blue infrastructure (GBI) at city-scale is a key action to this process. It is necessary to examine this issue under three priority areas: the technicalscientific adaptation to new strategies and innovations in progress, the regulatory simplification of the territory governance, and the finding of economic resources.