Planning, Nature and Ecosystem Services – Proceedings of the International Conference on Innovation and Urban and Regional Planning INPUT aCAdemy 2019

This e-book contains the Proceedings of the INPUT aCAdemy 2019 Conference held at the University of Cagliari on 24-26 June 2019, titled “Planning, nature and ecosystem services.” Input aCAdemy follows the tenth INPUT Conference, held in September 2018 at Tuscia University, in Viterbo and, in some way, it breaks the biennial tradition of the INPUT Conferences. The reason for the frequency increase of the INPUT Conferences is that the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture of the University of Cagliari is involved in a project funded by the Programme INTERREG Marittimo–Italia France–Maritime 2014–2020, Axis 2. In the context of the project, entitled “GIREPAM–Integrated Management of Ecological Networks through Parks and Marine Areas”, the Department and the Office for Nature Protection and forest policies of the Regional Autonomous Administration of Sardinia are studying and defining an experimental methodology to integrate conservation measures concerning Natura 2000 Sites into marine protected areas regulations. The methodology is implemented to build the new regulations of two marine protected areas of Sardinia, namely the Island of Asinara and of the Island of Tavolara and Cape Coda Cavallo. Since GIREPAM allocates a considerable amount of funds to the organization of an international conference on protection of nature and natural resources, ecosystem services and their relationship with spatial planning processes and practices, green infrastructure, and integrated management of protected areas and Natura 2000 Sites, and these funds must be spent by December 2019, the research group at the Department proposed to the INPUT Community, during the 2018 Viterbo Conference, a 2019 INPUT Conference focussing on these themes. The INPUT Community responded enthusiastically and, that being so, the research group has made every effort to make the event come true. The Conference develops through plenary sessions and parallel tracks. The scope of the plenary sessions is to propose distinguished points of view concerning research and implied planning ideas and policies on important and significant issues which feature the ongoing scientific and technical debate on nature and natural resources. The questions proposed and discussed in the Conference are three central topics which are characterized by several studies available in contemporary literature, and by vibrant debates as well, both from the theoretical and technical points of view. These questions are presented and discussed in the three plenary sessions which are the starting points of the three days of the Conference. Each plenary session is organized as follows: first, a speaker, a distinguished scholar, proposes the findings of his theoretical and/or applied research work and derived implications for spatial policy; secondly, a discussant, a distinguished scholar as well, critically analyzes the positions expressed in the first place and identifies open or unresolved questions and outstanding issues; thirdly, the public enters the discussion, through questions, observations, critical positions. Finally, the speaker replies to the discussant’s and to the public’s statements. The first plenary session is on “Valuing ecosystem services in money: A necessary evil for protecting biodiversity?”; the speaker is Erik Gomez-Baggethun (Faculty of Landscape and Society, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); the discussant is Andrea Arcidiacono (Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Polytechnic University of Milan). The second plenary session concerns “Managing urban ecosystems for goods and services”; the speaker is Kevin Gaston (Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter); the discussant is Bernardino Romano (Department of Civil, Building-Architecture and Environmental Engineering, University of L’Aquila). The third plenary session is related to “Mapping and modeling ecosystem services: A cascade ES modeling approach applied to the Flemish Natura 2000 Network”; the speaker is Jan Staes (Department of Biology, University of Antwerp); the discussant is Beniamino Murgante (School of Engineering, University of Basilicata at Potenza). The topics presented in the plenary sessions are the background of the discussions which characterize the parallel tracks. These tracks are featured by studies which consider protection of nature and natural resources, ecosystem services and their relationship with spatial planning processes and practices, as regards the following topics: 1. Ecosystem services and spatial planning; 2. Integrated management of marine protected areas and Natura 2000 sites; 3. Rural development and conservation of nature and natural resources; 4. Geodesign, planning and urban regeneration; 5. Green and blue infrastructure; 6. Smart city planning; 7. Water resources planning, ecosystem services and nature-based solutions in spatial planning; 8. Conservation and valorisation of architectural and cultural heritage; 9. Accessibility, mobility and spatial planning; 10. Tourism and sustainability in the Sulcis area; 11. Ecological networks and landscape planning. The closing plenary session of the Conference proposes a roundtable discussion on “Planning Nature 2000 Network and protected areas: The integration of conservation measures into regulations.” The roundtable will involve panelists from several institutions who participate in the GIREPAM Project.