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Assessing the current status of urban forest resources in the context of Parco Nord, Milan, Italy

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Abstract

During the early part of the 1980s, a major project called Parco Nord was undertaken by the Lombardia Region to establish forest resources within an industrial area located in the northern part of the city of Milan. Since 1983, more than 60 ha of formerly industrial land has been converted into urban forest plantations, thus creating large patches of trees with the potential to sustain a wide range of functions and services. This paper describes an integrative study aimed to assess the current status of forest resources in Parco Nord. It focuses on the actions taken to determine whether forest resources significantly changed their status 20 years after their establishment, considering historical field data and records of management practices. Analyses have been conducted at both stand and tree level by collecting quantitative and qualitative parameters. Stand-level analysis gave a quantitative estimation of the response of species to ecological conditions and management practices while tree-level analysis provided evidence of species renovation after thinning operations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the staff of Parco Nord, Milano, Benedetto Selleri and all the people working for the project “Laboratori Boschi”, Milan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Scienze delle Produzioni Vegetali, University of Bari, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126, Bari, Italy

    Giovanni Sanesi & Raffaele Lafortezza

  2. Department of Gestione dei Sistemi Agrari e Forestali, University of Reggio Calabria, Catanzaro, Italy

    Pasquale A. Marziliano

  3. Department of Biotecnologie Agrarie, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Alessandro Ragazzi

  4. Department of Produzione Vegetale, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Luigi Mariani

Authors
  1. Giovanni Sanesi
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  2. Raffaele Lafortezza
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  3. Pasquale A. Marziliano
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  4. Alessandro Ragazzi
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  5. Luigi Mariani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giovanni Sanesi.

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Sanesi, G., Lafortezza, R., Marziliano, P.A. et al. Assessing the current status of urban forest resources in the context of Parco Nord, Milan, Italy. Landscape Ecol Eng 3, 187–198 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11355-007-0031-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11355-007-0031-2

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