Innovation

Interreg CH-IT VERDEVALE

VERDEVALE is an innovative project that aims at establishing a community of cross-border best practices between small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and local authorities for the management and enhancement of urban green areas. In particular, the project focuses on the in-depth analysis of ecosystem services provided by shrubs, playing the role of important allies for the mitigation of urban climate.

The project, which involves the cities of Bolzano (IT) and Lugano (CH) as partners and pilot sites, is confronted with environmental challenges of our time, in places characterized by strong anthropization and high vulnerability to the effects of climate change. For this reason, developing innovative methods is needed to make Alpine cities resilient and generate positive effects on citizens' life quality.

VERDEVALE focus:

• Identify a sustainable methodology to collect and update urban green data for an adequate assessment of ecosystem services;
• Carry out a census of urban green in the two partner cities by using the new methodology characterized both by innovative technologies and by the structuring of the collected data. The methodology involves the environmental and economic quantification of Ecosystem Services;
• Upgrade the GIS management platform, already in use in the two partner cities, to implement the new data model and develop necessary functionalities for the quantification of ecosystem services.

Give maximum visibility of environmental results to the citizens.

R3GIS, in addition to being the project lead partner, plays a role in the development and updating of the common GIS platform GreenSpaces for an efficient management of the urban green. Because GreenSpaces operates on both sides of the border, the project results are more easily replicable in other cities of the cross-border mountain territory.

A new notion of the function carried out by the urban green becomes particularly relevant in the Alpine context, in which the project takes place, with the aim of making the Alpine region sustainable and attractive not only from an environmental but also economic point of view, by improving the competitiveness of companies operating in the area. Businesses in the green management sector can increase their competitiveness through the enhancement of ecosystem services that urban greenery offers to the city.

The Interreg VerdeVale project shares knowledge on the value of urban green areas with citizens. Check the public portals:

Public Portal of Lugano Public Portal of Bolzano

Name: INTERREG IT-CH VERDEVALE

Financing programme: INTERREG

Project partners: R3GIS (Lead Partner), City of Lugano, City of Bolzano, Benicchio, Demetra.

Duration: 04/2019 - 07/2022

For more information on the VERDEVALE project and the latest updates, visit www.verdevale.eu.

Operation co-funded by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund, the Italian Government and the Swiss Confederation and Cantons as part of the Interreg V-A Italy-Switzerland Cooperation Programme.