Why?

Environmental pressures targeted by SMURBS

Urban Growth: Monopoli is a fastly expanding urban area that leads to high rates of land consumption due to human pressure on the coast, as well as in the peri-urban area. Land consumption in Monopoli is a characteristically seasonal impact due to the huge flows of tourists. This leads to environmental, infrastructural, and economic problems for residents and should be considered in urban planning decision-making processes for smart urban growth.

How?

The implementation of smart urban solutions

Urban Growth: The goal of the production of the Very High Resolution (VHR) layer for the inter-annual change of land consumption for Monopoli was to monitor and assess the urban area and its transformation with a pixel resolution of 5m.The output of this solution supports local administration and urban planners in developing the city in a smart and sustainable way. The easy to read and understandable maps are a valuable instrument for increasing public education and outreach, enabling the citizens to participate in the urban planning and decision process as informed partners. Further, land consumption information supports the 2 indicators of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11.3.1“Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate” and “per capita land consumption”.

The following urban growth-related city-scale indicators are elaborated for Bologna: LCPI (Largest Class Patch Index), RMPS (Residual Mean Patch Size), ED (Edge Density), ID (Dispersion index), percentage of land consumption, surfaces of land consumption (hectares), the annual percentage increase in land consumption, loss of agricultural, natural and semi-natural areas. These indicators support urban planners and architects in monitoring the city development, analyzing and evaluating the risk of ecosystem service losses, and promote sound and sustainable urban planning.

The land cover classification for the urban area of Monopoli is based on satellite images (Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2) at 10m resolution. This is a valuable input for Earth Observation Data Ecosystem Monitoring (EODESM) system. This solution provides a framework for land use planning and supports effective communication and information for decision-makers and citizens. Mapping procedures involve stakeholders, who are participating in the individuation of relevant ancillary data by providing research and cartographic material available on the local level. This represents a fundamental integration between national and local level information.