GIS-BASED DESIGN OF A MUNICIPAL ECOLOGICAL NETWORK AND QUANTIFICATION OF NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS BENEFITS THROUGH ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: The case of Guardiaregia (CB)

Within the framework of EU Regulation 2024/1991, known as the Nature Restoration Regulation, this document proposes an integrated approach that links the spatial planning of the Municipal Ecological Network, understood as a territorial infrastructure enabling Nature-based Solutions, both to decisions regarding the protection and transformation of the territory governed by Municipal Urban Plan and to the measurement (including economic evaluation) of the benefits generated by NbS. In the case study of Guardiaregia (CB), the network is structured by delineating: (i) central areas of high natural value; (ii) buffer zones designed to mitigate anthropogenic pressures; (iii) ecological corridors as primary axes of connectivity; and (iv) restoration areas situated within low-density settlement patterns interspersed with open, agricultural or semi-natural spaces, where the proposal is to strengthen green infrastructure and limit fragmentation through more compact configurations. This produces a replicable model that makes explicit the relationship between ecological quality and the socio-economic value generated by the network. Among the ecosystem services, carbon storage and sequestration in forest formations are quantified and monetized through the allocation of carbon sinks and an economic estimate based on the social cost of carbon. The approach, which can be replicated in other contexts, clarifies the link between ecological connectivity, climate benefits and cost-effective choices.