Green Infrastructures and Nature-Based Solutions

The course aims to introduce the field of green
infrastructures, green space planning and design for the development of sustainable rural areas and cities. The aims of this course are to:
- introduce the concept and principles of green infrastructures and
nature-based solutions;
- introduce green infrastructures and nature-based solutions in
landscape planning as a mechanism for addressing biodiversity, climate change, health, ecosystem services, water management and wider urban greening issues;
- develop methodological and technical skills in green infrastructures
and nature-based solutions planning;
- understand the major regulation and provisioning ecosystem services
provided by urban vegetation, and methods for their quantification;
- understand the consequences that the selection of species has on the
delivery of ecosystem services;
- develop problem solving, presentation and group working skills useful
to face, in multidisciplinary teams, the problems related to green infrastructures and nature-based solutions planning and design.
A key component to this module is a fieldwork where students will have the opportunity to visit and assess existing green infrastructures, including streams and channels, and to apply proposed methodologies, procedures and techniques in a recovery planning and design case study.

At the end of the course
students will have an in-depth understanding of the planning mechanisms that govern the development of green infrastructures.
Knowledge and understanding. The students should be able to:
- present and discuss the values, benefits and functions of different
types of green infrastructures;
- explain the process of green infrastructures planning,
Applying knowledge and understanding.
- apply methodologies, procedures and techniques for green
infrastructures and nature-based solutions assessment, planning and design,
- use GIS and CAD technologies to produce map, plan and drawing,
- recognize widely used species at urban sites,
- estimate the delivery of ecosystem services by individual trees,
- apply Landscape Ecology principles to spatial analysis and landscape
design,
- make the correct choice of plant species for nature-based solutions
and green infrastructures.