Is new always better than old? Accessibility and usability of the urban green areas of the municipality of Rome

Urban Green Areas (UGAs) are Green Infrastructure (GI) elements widely known as a framework for applying
Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), as they may preserve and increase environmental values in urbanized contexts by
supporting a wide range of ecosystem services. Accessibility and usability of UGAs are important indicators of
the environmental quality of urban areas to be considered in the sustainable governance, management, and
design of metropolitan areas. In such a context, the present study aims at assessing accessibility and usability of
UGAs from both old and new residential settlements of the 15 administrative units of the Rome municipality,
considered an exemplificative case of a Mediterranean city which, in recent decades, has been subjected to a
rapid transition from a ‘compact growth’ model to a more ‘dispersed’ one.
Firstly, we used the European Urban Atlas geodatabase to identify and map residential areas, including those
established between 2006 and 2012. Secondly, we performed a network analysis to assess the distance between
urban settlements and the closest UGA access point. Ancillary data were used to check the presence of facilities
and therefore to assess the usability of UGAs. 57% of residential settlements have accessible UGAs in their
surroundings, but the percentage is much lower (25%) if we consider those established between 2006 and 2012.
This evidence was also found at administrative unit scale. Equally, the share of population that can benefit from
accessible UGAs is lower in the new settlements, notably in the more peripheral administrative units. The usability
of accessible UGAs exceeds 80% in the whole study area.
The proposed methodology could be applied in similar contexts, as a useful tool for urban planners and
decision makers to (i) support the assessment of the quality of life of people living in new residential settlements;
(ii) design new UGAs in order to increase accessibility to green spaces, and therefore the value of newly built-up
areas. The implications of, future perspectives of and need for sustainable urban planning in the light of the NBS
framework are reported and discussed.