Ecosystem Services Analysis and Design through Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Planning at a Neighbourhood Scale

The new frontiers of sustainable cities should focus on urban planning tools and strategiesthat are able to integrate ecosystem services in urban development. An important step could includethe design of nature-based solutions (NbSs) for introducing important ecological functions aidinghuman well-being and mitigating the loss of soil. In this study, we propose a methodology to analyse, in a spatial way, the effect of land use scenarios generated by urban planning in the provisionof ecosystem services. The methodology analyses the variation of ecosystem services, consideringthe ecosystem services of the study area and their potential roles in changing the functions ofplanned urban actions as the starting point. One scenario of analysis includes the integration ofNbSs into urban planning. The case study is that of a peri-urban area, characterized by an agroecosystem, which is intended for urban development in the municipality of Gallipoli, Southern Italy.The analysis highlights a low provision of ecosystem services by the agroecosystem, which has hadthe effect of important olive trees being destroyed by Xylella fastidiosa bacteria. Thus, the integrationof NbSs and reducing the construction of buildings in the urban neighbourhood plan could improvethe quantity of ecosystem services in the area. Moreover, the ecological design of ecosystem servicescould improve the typology of ecosystem services provision in the area in consideration of the starting points. Therefore, the analysis of the capacity to integrate ecosystem services in urban planningat the neighbourhood scale could be a tool of ecological urban design, useful to support the decisionmaking processes.