Ecosystem Services in the Milan South-Eastern Edges. An Analytical Proposal for Interdisciplinary Research

Among peri-urban rural systems, human and ecologica! dynamics are tightly interweaved and need to be coupled when peri-urban lanci functional rehabilitation is addressed. In the light of such a premise, the here presented study intends to give a contribution on the understanding and accounting of the ecologica! and cultura! functions and services that can be delivered by peri-urban agroecological participative approaches interlinked with agroforestry and landscape features multifunctional management practices. With this aim, landscape ecology and geographical studies are being led among the Milan south-eastern rural edges, in an area interested by different agroecological projects and multistakeholder strategie visions. On the ecologica! side, the study was focused on a multi-scale analysis of the structural and functional traits of the landscape mosaic. Patches size, shape, diversity and connectivity indexes have been compared: i. framing the local scale peri-urban landscape system vulnerabilities and resilience traits; ii. featuring the pilot area context by comparing its current state to a project scenario where agroforestry multifunctional landscape features are further implemented, mitigating the landscape texture gaps. Some functional indicators have been mutuateci from the landscape bionomics approach. These results have been integrateci into a wider trans-disciplinary methodological framework that was set up with the aim of assessing the current and potential capacity of the area of implementing and generating both Ecosystem Services and Cultura! Ecosystem Services. Indeed, a specific study is being led on the identification and evaluation of cultura! and social spillovers generateci within the regenerative agriculture and agroecology projects implemented in the area starting from 2019, through different qualitative research methods such as surveys, semi-structured interviews and community mapping. The evaluations emerged from the study already highlight multi-faceted positive contributions of the practices under study, and represent useful methodological premises for the further integration and implementation of the transdisciplinary assessment methodology, targeted for peri-urban systems peculiarities.