Urban green infrastructure and urban forests: a case study of the Metropolitan Area of Milan

AbstractRapid expansion of urban built-up areas since the 1950s has led to the Milan region becoming one of the major metropolitan areas of Europe. This has been accompanied by significant structural changes to urban and peri-urban landscapes and fragmentation of formerly contiguous green corridors by the distribution of new urban forms such as housing and transport infrastructure. The need to address the loss of green space was first recognised by policy-makers at the end of the 1970s and in due course, this has led to new policies and laws. These policies included the introduction of the Milan metropolitan parks approach that, nowadays, is represented by numerous urban forests that have become the backbone of green infrastructure (GI) creation and management. In the last decades, a total of 10 000 hectares of new forests and green systems have been created. Boscoincitta and Parco Nord Milano are the best known examples of this approach aimed to redevelop the neighbourhoods of some suburbs of Milan to cr...