URBAN ECOLOGY:
The "Green railroad tracks" project
The project was a feasibility study implemented by the Municipality of Milano, WWF and ELIANTE, under funding by CARIPLO Bank Foundation.
The work designed an urban ecological network composed by dismantled and re-greened rail-yards (as stepping stones), buffer zones of operating tracks (as green corridors) and urban green areas, connected to a regional Park south of the city of Milan. The final vision forecasts a more natural network of public green urban spaces where biodiversity lives and moves, making urban natural habitats more viable and able to survive a status of genetic bottleneck.
Biodiversity surveys were done to detect species richness and/or abundance of taxa: surveys were carried out on vascular plants, invertebrates (Carabidae, Stafilinidae, Araneae, Rhoplaocera), Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals. Plants, Herptofauna and butterflies were detected during transects/walks in the study areas (yards and railway tracks); Coleoptera were sampled by pitfall traps Birds were sampled by point counts and mammals by photo-trapping.
The study provided a functional design of public spaces and foot & bike routes, a simulation of ecological permeability and possible accommodations for urban natural oases and new green spaces designed in abandoned yards.
Side connections towards the countryside out of Milan showed existing green spaces as key elements to be re-naturalized as connecting corridors. The project proposed a detailed plan of urban wilderness oases and the guidelines for a natural management of urban green spaces to enhance ecosystem services in urban areas.
The whole project is a model applicable to public and private green areas, supporting maintenance contractors, real estate developers and policy makers
The feasibility study, born in a sensitive political frame of a delicate public-private agreement between the Municipality of Milano and the State railway company, was defined as the largest urbanistic idea of transformation in Milano after WW2. It gave birth as well a new project funded by the European Union (Horizon 2020), regarding the urban social value of nature based solutions in the cities. Major partners were the Municipality of London, Hamburg and Milano.
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The work designed an urban ecological network composed by dismantled and re-greened rail-yards (as stepping stones), buffer zones of operating tracks (as green corridors) and urban green areas, connected to a regional Park south of the city of Milan. The final vision forecasts a more natural network of public green urban spaces where biodiversity lives and moves, making urban natural habitats more viable and able to survive a status of genetic bottleneck.
Biodiversity surveys were done to detect species richness and/or abundance of taxa: surveys were carried out on vascular plants, invertebrates (Carabidae, Stafilinidae, Araneae, Rhoplaocera), Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals. Plants, Herptofauna and butterflies were detected during transects/walks in the study areas (yards and railway tracks); Coleoptera were sampled by pitfall traps Birds were sampled by point counts and mammals by photo-trapping.
The study provided a functional design of public spaces and foot & bike routes, a simulation of ecological permeability and possible accommodations for urban natural oases and new green spaces designed in abandoned yards.
Side connections towards the countryside out of Milan showed existing green spaces as key elements to be re-naturalized as connecting corridors. The project proposed a detailed plan of urban wilderness oases and the guidelines for a natural management of urban green spaces to enhance ecosystem services in urban areas.
The whole project is a model applicable to public and private green areas, supporting maintenance contractors, real estate developers and policy makers
The feasibility study, born in a sensitive political frame of a delicate public-private agreement between the Municipality of Milano and the State railway company, was defined as the largest urbanistic idea of transformation in Milano after WW2. It gave birth as well a new project funded by the European Union (Horizon 2020), regarding the urban social value of nature based solutions in the cities. Major partners were the Municipality of London, Hamburg and Milano.
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