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8.5.2 Public Green Spaces: Create New Traffic Islands
and Plant New Trees
The third intervention focuses on increasing public green spaces. Here too, we are
not talking about great new parks or large green areas; these are micro interventions
that can be applied in a city with a consolidated infrastructure. Practically speaking,
it is about creating new traffic islands and planting new trees. These interventions
necessitate an innovative approach based on a new public space management vision.
At present, for most Italian cities to add new trees and traffic islands in urban areas
where everything has already been built could involve an increase in maintenance
costs and a loss of needed urban space (for car, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic, parking, etc.). This is why this new approach would have to be adopted as part of a
strategic paradigm shift in the general management of city spaces. Creating new
green spaces inside the context of a built up city entails changing one’s perception
of street space as just for transit, parking, and car maneuvering. A new paradigm for
the use of public green spaces requires a strategic rethinking of urban greenery,
insofar as what it can offer in terms of the urban ecosystem adapting to climate
changes. Going down this road means understanding and valuing the gamut of services that green spaces can offer to mitigate the heat island effect in addition to other
negative externalities due to weather phenomena: lamination for the containment of
Fig. 8.12 Intervention 3 + summary of intervention 3
Add green areas on the ground of public spaces in addition to public trees
F. Musco et al.
8.5.2 Public Green Spaces: Create New Traffic Islands
and Plant New Trees
The third intervention focuses on increasing public green spaces. Here too, we are
not talking about great new parks or large green areas; these are micro interventions
that can be applied in a city with a consolidated infrastructure. Practically speaking,
it is about creating new traffic islands and planting new trees. These interventions
necessitate an innovative approach based on a new public space management vision.
At present, for most Italian cities to add new trees and traffic islands in urban areas
where everything has already been built could involve an increase in maintenance
costs and a loss of needed urban space (for car, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic, parking, etc.). This is why this new approach would have to be adopted as part of a
strategic paradigm shift in the general management of city spaces. Creating new
green spaces inside the context of a built up city entails changing one’s perception
of street space as just for transit, parking, and car maneuvering. A new paradigm for
the use of public green spaces requires a strategic rethinking of urban greenery,
insofar as what it can offer in terms of the urban ecosystem adapting to climate
changes. Going down this road means understanding and valuing the gamut of services that green spaces can offer to mitigate the heat island effect in addition to other
negative externalities due to weather phenomena: lamination for the containment of
Fig. 8.12 Intervention 3 + summary of intervention 3
Add green areas on the ground of public spaces in addition to public trees
F. Musco et al.