Bari, Italy
City population: 312579
Duration: 2008 – ongoing
Implementation status: Ongoing
Scale: Meso-scale: Regional, metropolitan and urban level
Project area: 1250000 m2
Type of area: Previous derelict area, Other
Last updated: October 2021

The Lama Balice Nature Park is located near a long 'lama', which is a deep karst gorge, located north of the city of Bari. Established in an abandoned site, the nature park protects the area of the riverbed in the periphery of the city, acting as a natural channel for regulating water flow. It also serves as a recreational and cultural hub, while conserving agricultural functions and maintaining biodiversity. An administrative body consisting of the participating local mayors has been set up to manage the protected area. [1][2]

Lama Balice Regional Nature Park
Lama Balice Regional Nature Park
Source: https://www.viaggiareinpuglia.it/at/30/parco/104/en/Lama-Balice-Regional-Nature-Park-Bitonto-(Bari)

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Parks and urban forests
  • Large urban parks or forests

Key challenges

  • Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
  • Climate change adaptation
  • Water management (SDG 6)
  • Flood protection
  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Habitat and biodiversity conservation
  • Environmental quality
  • Air quality improvement
  • Health and well-being (SDG 3)
  • Enabling opportunities for physical activity
  • Improving mental health
  • Improving physical health
  • Creation of opportunities for recreation
  • Cultural heritage and cultural diversity
  • Protection of historic and cultural landscape/infrastructure

Focus

Protection of natural ecosystems, Knowledge creation and awareness raising, Monitoring and maintenance of habitats and/or biodiversity

Project objectives

According to the Territorial Plan of the Regional Natural Park of Lama Balice, its goals are [1][3][6]: - conserving biodiversity and the natural ecosystem; - conserve and reorganize agricultural areas; - recover the degraded and abandoned areas; - improve the interaction between environmental systems and human settlements; - improve accessibility and usability; - to promote knowledge of the territory and the landscape.

Implementation activities

The park conserves the habitats and animal and plant species protected by regional legislation, and recovers the historical-architectural heritage as well as promotes education, scientific research, and sustainable recreational activities. The park regularly conducts educational activities, guided tours, and hosts conferences in accordance with its goal of improving the interaction between environmental systems and human settlements. The Lama Balice Park also avails itself of the collaboration of various organizations that actively operate on the territory in the field of territorial promotion, environmental education and scientific research and that manage the activities in the reference sectors. [1][3][4]

Climate-focused activities

Climate change adaptation:

  • Increase or improve urban vegetation cover to help reduce outdoor temperature
  • Create or improve outdoor spaces to help people escape from urban heat

Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities

Biodiversity conservation:

  • Protect and enhance urban habitats
  • Preserve and strengthen existing habitats and ecosystems
  • Preserve and strengthen habitat connectivity
  • Reduce negative impacts and avoid the alteration/damage of ecosystem

Main beneficiaries

  • Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)
  • Citizens or community groups
  • Marginalized groups: Socio-economically disadvantaged populations (e.g. low-income households, unemployed)

Governance

Management set-up

  • Government-led

Type of initiating organisation

  • Local government/municipality

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Dissemination of information and education
  • Consultation (e.g. workshop, surveys, community meetings, town halls)

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

The park is jointly managed by three municipalities, the Municipality of Bari, the Municipality of Bitonto, and the Metropolitan City of Bari (formerly the Province of Bari) following an agreement signed in 2008 and renewed in 2013. A park administration was created in order to oversee management, consisting of the mayors from the 3 municipalities as well as shareholders, park staff, and a technical committee. [3]

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Unknown
... a national policy or strategy? Yes (Established with the Regional Law n. 15 of 05/06/2007, the Lama Balice Regional Nature Park is the first natural park that can be defined as 'urban', due to its proximity to the city centers of Bari and Bitonto. With a length of about 37 kilometers the Lama Balice Park stands in continuity with the Alta Murgia National Park, of which it shares part of the naturalistic-vegetational peculiarities and to which it has been linked to since 2012. For its management an agreement was signed in 2008 among the Municipality of Bari, the Municipality of Bitonto and the Metropolitan City of Bari (formerly the Province of Bari). This agreement was renewed on 2013. [3])
... a local policy or strategy? Unknown

Financing

Total cost

Unknown

Source(s) of funding

  • Public local authority budget

Type of funding

  • Earmarked public budget

Non-financial contribution

Type of non-financial contribution
  • Provision of labour
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
  • Public authorities (e.g. land, utility services)

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Climate change
  • Lowered local temperature
  • Enhanced carbon sequestration
  • Environmental quality
  • Improved air quality
  • Water management and blue areas
  • Improved stormwater management
  • Green space and habitat
  • Increased green space area
  • Increased conservation or restoration of ecosystems
  • Increase in protected green space areas
  • Increased conversion of degraded land or soil
  • Reduced biodiversity loss
  • Increased ecological connectivity across regeneration sites and scales
  • Restoration of derelict areas

Economic impacts

  • Unknown

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Social justice and cohesion
  • Improved social cohesion
  • Improved liveability
  • Improved access to urban green space
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Improved physical health
  • Improved mental health
  • Gain in activities for recreation and exercise
  • Cultural heritage and sense of place
  • Protection of historic and cultural landscape / infrastructure
  • Increased awareness of flora and fauna as culturally and historically meaningful
  • Education
  • Increased knowledge of locals about local nature

Type of reported impacts

Achieved impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Unknown

Presence of indicators used in reporting

No evidence in public records

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No evidence in public records

References

[1] Bari - NBS for greening the urban space (n.d.). OPPLA. retrieved from Source link (Accessed 3-7-2020)
[2] Lama Balice Regional Nature Park. (n.d.). The Official Tourism Website for Puglia. retrieved from Source link (Accessed 3-7-2020)
[3] Park. (2015). Parco Naturale Regionale Lama Balice. retrieved from Source link (Accessed 3-7-2020)
[4] Tarsitano, E., Colao, M., and Sinibaldi, P. (2017). Biodiversity in the urban park of Lama Balice between protection and enhancement: the BASE project. Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences. 10(4), 174-186. Source link (Accessed 3-7-2020)
[5] Milone, F. and Camarda, D. (2017). Modeling Knowledge in Environmental Analysis: A New Approach to Soundscape Ecology. Sustainability, 564(9): 1-20, Available at Source link (Accessed 3-7-2020)
[6] DeBellis, Y., Spanò, M., Lafortezza, R., & Sanesi, G. (2015). Bari Italy (Case Study City Portrait; part of a GREEN SURGE study on urban green infrastructure planning and governance in 20 European cities) (Website not available in 2020)