S.O.S. 4 LIFE – Save Our Soil for LIFE (LIFE15 ENV/IT/000225)

SOS4LIFE is a demonstration project that aims to contribute to the enforcement at municipal scale of European orientations about soil protection and urban regeneration, with particular reference to the Guidelines on best practices to reduce, mitigate and compensate soil sealing [SWD(2012) 101]. Tools, rules and actions promoted by this project are aimed to implement (in advance) the Community strategy “no net land take by 2050” according to the Roadmap to a resource efficient Europe [COM(2011) 571] as confirmed also by the 7th Environment Action Programme [1386/2013/EU]. The project intends to produce a viable framework on no net land take” suitable for the three municipalities involved in the project – Forlì, Carpi (MO) and San Lazzaro di Savena (BO) – and for others local authorities both in Italy and Europe, based on the following specific objectives: 1) Definition of urban regulations and implementation tools, applicable at municipal level, aimed to ensure the balance of no net land take in newly urbanized areas through a system based on the exchange between urbanized surfaces and de-sealing actions as a compensation; 2) Definition of rules and incentives to support the urban regeneration of existing settlements through actions that aim to the energy and seismic re-qualification; 3) Definition of procedures for the monitoring and evaluation of land take and its impacts on the ecosystem aimed to provide tools, methods, data to support policy-makers,favor technicians’ choices on territorial planning and improve the information transparency; 4) Definition of a methodology for the detection, evaluation and mapping of ecosystem services provided by urban and periurban soils, aimed at quantifying ecosystem services and planning actions for their growth and improvement; 5) Implementation of three de-sealing interventions in three urban areas that will be replaced with a green space to demonstrate both the technical and economical feasibility and transferability of the “framework on no net land take”; 6) Effective and large-scale promotion of knowledge and awareness about the social and economic consequences of the processes of land take addressed to public authorities, businesses, schools, and citizenship.