ROME – Assoverde and Confagricoltura present focus 22/23 of the Green White Book dedicated to urban green spaces and health, with a study day attended by institutional representatives, professors and scholars from universities and research institutions, technicians, experts, entrepreneurs and professionals who have contributed to the volume.
After the pandemic we have all wanted to live in healthier and greener cities. Instead, our urban centers continue to be besieged by smog and noise, subjected to the increasingly damaging effects of climate change.
A study carried out in 14 Italian cities shows that one hectare of “urban forest” can remove, on average, 17 kg of fine dust per year, while the trees of a peri-urban forest can absorb up to 1005 kg/year, per hectare, of carbon , with direct influence on human health. As recalled by the European Environment Agency, Italy accounts for around 70,000 deaths a year, equal to 25% of the total, due to the consequences associated with air pollution.
How can this trend be reversed by regenerating green spaces so that they become friends of health and well-being? And at what point are the local administrations towards the European Zero Pollution Strategy, which passes above all through a greater presence of nature in the daily life of citizens?
These are the topics that will be discussed on Friday 20 January in Rome (9.30 am – 6.00 pm, at the Confagricoltura headquarters in Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 101), during “Parchi della Salute. For a Neo-Renaissance of Greenery and its Care ”: the conference organized by Assoverde and Confagricoltura, in collaboration with Crea, the Higher Institute of Health and professional associations.
The initiative aims to redesign the greenery of our cities and brings green professionals and doctors together for the first time. There are 95 authors, including institutional representatives, professors and scholars of universities and research institutions, technicians, experts and entrepreneurs who have contributed to the volume.
«There is still little awareness of how investing in green areas improves people’s lives and saves many public resources in health care spending. Now our goal becomes even more ambitious: with the “Health Parks” we want to certify the green spaces distributed in the city, each with its own type of user, which make it possible to mitigate and prevent the many pathologies that the urban environment induces. And put forward a regeneration proposal to local authorities that puts nature at the centre, with the skills and foresight that this entails», declares Rosi Sgaravatti, president of Assoverde.
«The 2023 focus of the “White Book of Greenery” reinforces our commitment to spread awareness of the value that parks, gardens, public and private green areas have for urban quality, people’s psycho-physical well-being, the protection of biodiversity. The European Green Deal plans to increase urban green spaces by 5% by 2050 and to obtain a minimum tree cover of 10% in each city. Focusing on greenery is a winning choice because it allows you to combine and respond simultaneously to the needs that the three dimensions of sustainability – environmental, economic and social – require», says Massimiliano Giansanti, National President of Confagricoltura.
On the other hand, the numbers contained in the new LBV are clear: one hectare of “urban forest” can absorb on average 17 kg per year of Pm 10, the particulate matter that causes numerous respiratory disorders and can eliminate 35.7 kg/year of tropospheric ozone, the gas with high oxidizing power that weakens lung functions. In terms of noise, a good green coverage allows to reduce the reflection of the sound up to 3 decibels. Premature mortality, highlights a study published last year in the Lancet, is reduced by 4% for each 0.1 increase in the vegetation rate within 500 meters of the area of residence. The advantages are also of a psychological and social nature: the natural context facilitates the practice of sport, the meeting with others, the stimulation of the senses which is particularly useful, for example, in elderly people with Alzheimer’s. Finally, adaptation to climate change: large trees lower the temperature of road asphalt by 20°C and the air temperature in cities by 5°C, only in Italy is it estimated that urban greenery is capable of absorbing 12 million tons of CO2.
To this end, the permanent research tables set up by Assoverde and Confagricoltura have been set up and continue their work (such as the one on health coordinated by Girolamo Sirchia at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, an illustrious doctor and former Minister of Health, and the one on planning and care of green areas coordinated by Assoverde and Confagricoltura), the first results of which will be anticipated during the event in Rome, which can also be followed online using the registration form on www.assoverde.it.
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