Climate-friendly parks

By project PROXIMITIES

Published on 17 March 2025

Italy

Emilia-Romagna

Reggio Emilia

About this good practice

Climate-friendly parks represent the new approach to urban greenery promoted by the Reggio Emilia Municipality which aims at ‘bringing nature back to the city’ in an effort to combat climate change through new design and management solutions, thus improving the quality and livability of neighbourhoods and public spaces in peri-urban areas.
Between 2021 and 2022, in the framework of the LIFE project CityAdaP3, the Municipality promoted an urban forestation pilot action in 4 urban parks (2,850 trees) to test a new model of “adaptive park” able to tackle urban heat islands, respond to the sharp increase in heat waves during the summer months, mitigate the microclimate of green areas and improve the usability by citizens.
The Climate-friendly parks project aims in particular to test the mitigation effectiveness of four landscape-environmental elements - rural hedges, permanent meadows, tree-lined rows and the innovative “Miyawaki” micro-forest - also through the combination of native and non-native species coming from different climatic zones.
This innovative approach enables the Municipality to assess how the individual species and the way they are placed together might respond to changing climatic conditions, thus creating a new model of urban parks which are more resilient and livable for local communities.

Expert opinion

Cities have been facing many environmental pressures, including climate change, pollution and waste. Green infrastructure in urban areas takes the form of vegetated green surfaces, such as parks, trees, grasslands, but also private gardens. These all work together to support biodiversity, pollinators, carbon sequestration, flood protection and protection against excessive heat. Moreover, green infrastructure positively impacts human health and wellbeing. Green infrastructure is an important element in fulfilling EU legislation, especially in the areas of biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation, especially the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030 and the Climate Adaptation Strategy. The Municipality of Reggio Emilia is aware of the benefits green spaces can have in climate adaptation and has developed a project to test which plants and ecosystems will have the best results in local context. The result is a model of an “adaptive park”, which can be replicated both in other local parks, as well as in other regions.

Magda Michaliková

Works at Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform

Resources needed

Total investment of 160.000 € (including EU funding from LIFE Programme and private co-financing from TIL company).

Evidence of success

New ways of creating public green areas in Reggio Emilia, introducing more natural elements, increasing biodiversity and responding to climate change. In 2023-2024, the experience of Climate-friendly parks spread across the city to 12 additional parks: 8,226 new trees and shrubs of adaptive species have been planted, creating 19 new micro-forests, with rows of trees to shade the most used areas. The extension of the adaptive intervention areas is over 61,000 square metres.

Potential for learning or transfer

The project experience made it possible to outline a replicable model of “adaptive park”, which can be replicated both in other local parks and in other countries to improve park design and management in terms of sustainability and adaptation to climate change, focusing on biodiversity, climate resilience and community involvement. The model is currently being studied by other Italian and European cities.