Projected ecosystem data - Italy

Located in the Lombardia region of northern Italy, the Po Valley demo showcases a dynamic landscape surrounding Milan. The goal of the Italian demo is to establish urban forests on former agricultural lands surrounding Milan with a mixture of tree and shrub species. Various planting density schemes were tested. The forest development, under varying restoration scenarios, was projected for the upcoming 30-years, till 2055, using the EFISCEN-Space and FastTrack models. With the EFISCEN-Space model, three scenarios were simulated. The first is the business as usual (BAU) scenario, in which the current forest area continues to develop under current forest management practices. In the first restoration scenario, 3600 ha are afforested with a planting density of 2000 trees per ha. In the second restoration scenario 3600 ha are also afforested with a planting density of 800 trees per ha. With the FastTrack model, three additional scenarios were simulated, testing different planting densities with 1500, 2000 and 2500 trees per ha. The model projections showed that the best planting density for the Italian demo is 2500 trees per hectare. In terms of maximising carbon capture over 40 years and diversity, the afforestation of 3600 ha will have an impact locally, although the EFISCEN-Space simulations results show no big differences between scenarios at a larger scale.