Quality of citizens’ lives and the quality of the urban environment evolve together, but only what is measured and recorded can be managed. To maximise the ecosystem services provided by urban vegetation, cities need precise, up-to-date and operational green inventories. A census is not a bureaucratic formality: it is the foundation for evidence-based maintenance, planning and investment.
Within the VerdeVale project, one of the final outputs is a set of thematic boards collecting best practices for specialists, companies and local authorities. The first focuses on the “Census of Urban Greening”, providing guidance aligned with the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM — Ministerial Decree of 10 March 2020, No. 63). It presents the workflow adopted in Lugano and Bolzano, the two pilot cities, describing the technical and administrative settings, the applied methodology, the results obtained and the benefits for data users from both a management and planning perspective.
Before VerdeVale, both cities had only partial inventories (limited to trees and playgrounds), and the GreenSpaces platform displayed approximate boundaries. The census has now been expanded to include vegetation (trees, lawns, flowerbeds, hedges), urban features (pavements, fences, furniture, artefacts) and use & management information (accurate boundaries and functional areas).
The workflow comprised aerial photogrammetry, photo-interpretation and digitalization of green surfaces, field surveys, botanical census of trees and shrubs, and final upload to GreenSpaces, which now serves as a complete and actionable knowledge base for urban-green management.
