Assessment of municipal masterplans aimed at identifying and fostering green infrastructure: a study concerning three towns of the Metropolitan Area of Cagliari, Italy

Building upon a recent piece of research that maps a regional green infrastructure (RGI) in relation to four components (natural value, conservation value, landscape value, and recreational value), this study aims at identifying planning policies that can foster the enhancement of the RGI by increasing one or more of its components at the sub-regional scale. To this end, the RGI suitability map is overlaid with the planning schemes of the municipal masterplans (MMPs) of three towns belonging to the Metropolitan City of Cagliari (Italy), and multiple linear regressions are performed. The outcomes of the study imply that the eligibility of a land parcel to be part of the RGI depends on several factors related to planning policies entailed by the zoning schemes of the MMPs, such as presence and spreading of conservation and safeguard areas within urban fabrics, improved accessibility of historic and natural landmarks, planned use of nature-based solutions within the regulating codes of MMPs, improvement of habitat quality in the spatial context of rural areas. Main limitations of the proposed methodology concern the fragile theoretical foundations concerning the assessment of the recreational value, and in the need for structured integration of nature-based solutions into the proposed methodology.