Ecological network from regional to municipal scale. The case-study of San Tammaro (Ce)

Ecological Network involves the whole territory, the elements that make it up are recognizable: - at regional scale in: national and regional parks, Site of Community Importance on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC), Special Area of Conservation of wild birds (Birds Directive 2009/147/EC), agricultural and forest areas and ecological corridors; - at provincial scale in: areas of high naturalistic value, natural areas of naturalistic completion, urban and peri-urban areas for widespread ecological reconstruction, gates and contaminated areas; - at municipal scale in: primary and secondary nodes, buffer zones of these nodes, areas of environmental protection, ecological connections, linear and punctual elements of local ecological network such as the gates of this network, the eco-fruitive connections between area with diffused naturalness or in anthropized areas, the fruition routes and the support areas. EN represents the fundamental sub-network of the Green Infrastructure that is an equipped macronetwork able to perform multiple functions and consists of a system of interconnected networks with green spaces that preserve the natural values and functions of the ecosystems and provide multiple benefits to the human population. Planning, design, implement and manage an efficient EN helps to stem climate change, rising temperatures, decreasing rainfall, increasing extreme weather events and the urban heat island effect. The recognition, protection, environmental regeneration and new realization, at various scales, of an EN is a real possibility both to mitigate the effects in the short term and to affect the causes in the long term too. The paper explores the implementation of an EN at the municipal scale as a fundamental element to design the town land use plan starting from a case-study to identify elements of generality distinguished from the territorial specificities.