The ambitious experimental project of the Fondazione Capellino began in January 2023 with the aim of designing, implementing and measuring nature-based solutions capable of mitigating the impact of climate change in the city, promoting urban biodiversity and improving the health conditions of citizens.

Cities are particularly affected by the effects of climate change: concrete and asphalt surfaces heat up and heat is captured between buildings; rainwater cannot penetrate the waterproofed soil; anthropization has almost eliminated biodiversity. This reduces the quality of life and hinders the inclusion of urban greenery which could mitigate the impact of climate change.

Too often improvised urban reforestation programs are used as slogans. These campaigns should instead be based on science, also taking advantage of new technologies: planting the right trees, in the right conditions, with the right care and above all measuring their global impact. For this reason, Fondazione Capellino has created, in Florence, a project that for the first time will experiment in the field with innovative nature-based solutions whose impacts will be rigorously measured in the years to come so that it can become an exportable and replicable model also in other urban realities in Europe.

The realization of the Foundation's project, in agreement with the Municipality of Florence with which a Memorandum of Understanding was signed, was entrusted to a pool of experts: the CNR is the scientific director, the University of Florence is responsible for the eco-physiology, and other experts and specialists in botany, biodiversity, surface engineering, architecture are coordinated by Prof. Alberto Giuntoli.

Global warming is one of the great challenges of the new millennium and human activities are not the only ones to suffer the consequences of these changes. The very concept of smart cities is limited to a context that takes nature into account only marginally and subordinated to man.

For this reason, the Florence Project also includes a natural area: in the historic Mugello area, the Giogo-Casaglia area on the Florentine Apennines will be twinned and monitored, with the aim of obtaining an area of ​​integral protection which will complement the study, mitigation and monitoring work carried out in the city.