Spreading green infrastructure-related benefits: A study concerning Sardinia, Italy

The European Commission defines green infrastructure (GI) as a network having the Natura 2000 sites at its core, able of delivering numerous ecosystem services (ESs), and “strategically planned”, emphasizing the role of GI as regards the integration of ecological connectivity and protection of the environment, and ecosystems multifunctionality. In this study we build upon a methodology applied in a previous study (Lai and Leone, 2017), where a Sardinian regional GI was identified based upon four factors: conservation value, natural value, recreation value and landscape value. Once a regional GI is identified, we comparatively assess the eligibility of areas located inside and outside protected areas to be part of the regional GI on the basis of the four factors indicated above. We find that patches located in protected areas are comparatively more eligible to be part of the regional GI than patches located outside only as far as conservation value’s spatial distribution is concerned. In the other three cases, the behavioral patterns of patches located inside and outside protected areas are less clear-cut. Policy recommendations coming from the outcomes entail the mitigation of land-taking processes, the enlargement of the Natura 2000 Network, the detailed and analytical identification of landscape goods, and the enhancement of the accessibility to attractive sites.