Green infrastructure and local planning processes: A study concerning the Metropolitan context of Cagliari

This study aims at defining planning policies that can enhance the strength and quality of a regional green infrastructure by improving its components. An innovative methodology that couples ecosystem services mapping, spatial analyses, and multiple linear regressions is used and applied to three municipalities belonging to the Metropolitan City of Cagliari (Italy). The results of the analysis show that a number of planning choices implied by the municipal masterplans and their zoning layouts can affect the suitability of a patch to be included in the regional green infrastructure; among such choices, presence of conservation within the urban tissue, access to relevant natural or cultural assets, improved natural and semi-natural habitats in rural areas use. Limitations of the proposed methodology, as well as replicability issues and directions for future research, are also identified.