Defining publicly accessible urban green spaces for psychophysical wellbeing in the Milan Metropolitan Area

The importance of UGS for human health is widely recognized for their direct and indirect benefits on psychophysical wellbeing, such as reducing sedentary lifestyles, reducing stress levels, improving air quality, and lowering temperatures.

Currently, one of the most critical challenges for urban areas is the clear identification and spatial definition of publicly accessible urban green spaces that provide benefits to urban citizens.

This paper presents the results of the research that has worked in the Milan Metropolitan Area to identify the “formal” green spaces, which are usually defined areas, and “informal” green spaces, characterized by spontaneous use and typically located in peri-urban context. The proposed map identifies greenspaces that directly impact psychophysical health, namely areas larger than 0.5 ha with a tree canopy of at least 20 % and actively used by citizens. This definition and classification of the different open spaces investigates the presence of UGS in a quantitative and qualitative way, using a comparative approach that considers the variety and diversity of these spaces. The ultimate goal is to be able to prioritise interventions for those areas that lack publicly accessible green spaces in our urban environments.