Indicators for the planning and management of urban green spaces: A focus on public areas in Padua, Italy

Green spaces and trees are fundamental for the sustainability of cities. The use of management and planning indicators for green spaces, including urban forests, have been proposed, but are rarely applied and their potential to provide ecological, social, and economic benefits is usually overlooked by policy makers and managers. Here, we apply a set of indicators describing green spaces and their variability in different urban units within the Basso Isonzo, an area of the city of Padua (northern Italy). Eleven indicators were selected based on their capacity to consider availability, accessibility and the preservation or increase of urban green spaces and tree cover. The value of indicators was standardized and enabled to have five classes indicating increasing performance. The study indicates green spaces’ heterogeneous conditions. Interestingly, the indicators commonly change moving from the city center to the outskirts. Monitoring through these indicators will enable understanding whether specific management and planning targets are met and, in the absence of these targets, identifying main trends over time. The proposed approach and indicators applied are simple to collect, analyze, and convey information. The indicators are related to relevant social, economic and ecological conditions pertaining to green spaces. The proposed indicators can therefore be used as a simple tool to guide decision-making with the aim of enhancing green spaces.