Urban Green Space Accessibility as a Strategic Tool to Design Green Infrastructure and Pedestrian Way

To consolidate new models of sustainable growth based on the manage- ment of natural resources, the traditional spatial planning tools are being integrated with new approaches based on ecological and environmental “performance” which consider the provision of ecosystem services through the design of Green Infrastructure (GI), a possible way to improve the quality of life in the contempo- rary city. The paper provides the results of the analysis of the green spaces accessi- bility developed for a municipality case study, located in the province of Ancona (center of Italy). The work is part of a research project aimed at developing strategic guidelines for green (and blue) infrastructures at the municipal scale for the defini- tion of the new Urban Green Plan; matching ecosystem services to different levels of accessibility; mapping of urban green resources; and estimates the proximity level of pedestrian and cycling accessibility of public areas. This contribution aims to help public administrations in evaluating the “performance” of green spaces based on the ecosystem services approach to support urban and territorial planning and decision-making tools.