The project involves the involvement of technicians from municipal and metropolitan administrations through a series of semi-structured interviews and focus groups that will allow the collection of data and information of a qualitative nature, identifying the main obstacles, barriers and challenges related to the integration of urban biodiversity objectives in urban planning tools. Discussions are also planned with exponents and representatives of professional associations, research bodies and institutes (ISTAT, ISPRA, etc.) with a view to better defining not only resistance but also possible trajectories of action.
The stakeholders listened to in this phase will also be involved in the next phase of the research, as potential beneficiaries of the working outputs, with the purpose of supporting processes of institutional capacitation and introducing spaces for innovation in policies for urban biodiversity and combating socio-spatial fragility.
The research has already surveyed and mapped the urban plans adopted by municipal and metropolitan governments to pursue the objectives of protecting, restoring and increasing urban biodiversity. In the absence of instruments addressed directly to biodiversity, Green Plans, thematic plans, supplementary to ordinary urban planning, were analyzed. The ultimate goal concerns the elaboration of cognitive and supportive frameworks to guide municipal and metropolitan governments to develop integrated planning tools and devices capable of producing effective impacts on increasing biodiversity in cities and countering socio-spatial fragility.