INTRA-SCALE DESIGN AND BENEFIT ASSESSMENT OF GREEN STORMWATER INFRASTRUCTURES

By considering the effects of climate change in urban areas, the paper investigates the benefits of environmental design strategies as green stormwater infrastructures. The environmental dimension of spatial planning sits alongside and AQ1 interfaceswith other sustainability challenges in the urban environment.Moreover, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic focused their crucial importance in the reorganization of places that are “safe” because they allow movement through cities with minimal risk of contagion, providing an adequate opportunity for safe AQ2 socialization. The research studied the design of green streets equipped with GSI devices in a portion of the town of Aversa (CE), to mitigate flooding, improve the microclimatic conditions and the quality of public spaces. The work was carried out with the support of software simulation of the microclimatic and physical behavior of urban areas (ENVI-Met) and evaluation of the benefits of ecosystem services (iTree Eco), performing in a cyclic way the phases of Analysis, Design and Verification. The approach allowed to refine the results obtained by selecting the most appropriate solutions for the project. The computer simulation of microclimatic conditions is a useful tool for the environmental assessment of limited urban ecosystems, where it would be particularly costly to install a series of small stations to detect the local weather conditions. The holistic approach to urban regeneration planning and project leads to a constant assessment of the increase of the ecosystem services resulting from the solutions chosen in the cyclical process of research through design.