Programma della conferenza

Biophilic Design is a design system based on Stephen Kellert and E.O. Wilson's Biophilia Hypothesis. Biophilia is literally ‘love for life’ – a feeling distinguished by the fascination evoked in human beings for Nature provoked by contact with Nature and by the affiliation that human beings establish with Nature. Biophilia is an evolutionary adaptation consisting of a set of innate learning rules that shape a spectrum of emotions, ranging from biophilia to biophobia. Two exaptations have been recognised in Biophilia, which occurred due to two moments of rupture of humankind from Nature: the first occurred in the Neolithic Age, the second with the Industrial Revolution which led to most humans becoming urbanized, disconnecting them from Nature. Designers following the principles of Biophilic Design seek to reconnect humans to Nature using our knowledge of biophilia as a guide for the design of artificial environments. Today, Biophilic Design is called to move away from empiricism, and instead implement the experimental tests of the Biophilia Hypothesis.

Citizen Science (CS) is more than just scientific research, it is about active civic participation. It is about going beyond reading news and watching documentaries, and actually getting involved in the scientific process. This deep and active involvement and the opportunity to collaboratively generate knowledge with others has significant impacts on society. This is particularly true in environmental science, where direct participation in scientific projects is closely linked to the opportunity to share knowledge and, in turn, make shared decisions on behaviors to change and practices to undertake. The democratization of the environment is a fairly recent idea that focuses on making environmental science more accessible to the wider community, with the aim of increasing scientists' awareness of local knowledge. CS initiatives serve as a foundational step in cultivating the necessary knowledge base, instigating behavioral shifts, and enhancing social capital through direct engagement with stakeholders and the wider community. Communication is a crucial part of CS activities, as without citizens there is no CS. It plays a vital role in recruiting, inviting, and maintaining participants’ motivation. Communication involves a continuous effort to maintain transparency throughout every phase of the scientific process, from formulating the research question to publication, and requires attention in the development phase to include all the fundamental actors defined by Pietro Greco in 4 dimensions on a territory (institutional, business, scientific and citizenship dimensions). Here is presented the PCSI communication plan, a project dedicated to assessing a methodology for the quality-quantitative analysis of microplastics in seawater surfaces and beaches through a CS approach. The communication plan has structured the target of local actors on different levels: i. political structures, ii. law enforcement and related structures, iii. scientific institutions, iv. entrepreneurial structures, v. educational institutions, vi. artistic structures and cultural organizations and vii. social media.

Riparian zones are crucial for regulating geomorphological processes and supporting ecosystems, offering essential services like water quality improvement and biodiversity support. However, they are often overlooked in protocols assessing the ecological status of watercourses, as outlined by the Water Framework Directive. Many citizens view these areas as dangerous or unattractive, not understanding their importance. To address this, the "RiVe" methodology for Citizen Science activities was developed to assess the quality of riparian forests using accessible techniques. The RiVe methodology consists of three main phases: training, data collection, and analysis. Citizen scientists are initially trained through workshops and educational materials, equipping them with the skills to identify riparian plant species and use monitoring tools like the ODK Collect app or paper forms. During the data collection phase, participants monitor twelve target species, categorized into three ecological groups as indicators of habitat health, and record information about the river ecosystem. The data is analyzed to calculate the RiVe index, which assesses the quality of the riparian forest. This index ranges from 0 to 120, categorizing each survey into one of five quality classes, thus guiding management and conservation strategies. Effective management of riparian zones can restore ecological connectivity and integrate ecological corridors, especially in plains and agroecosystems, into a trans-European nature network, as supported by the recent Nature Restoration Law. A case study on the Idice stream shows that the RiVe protocol effectively identifies areas of significant degradation and assesses the local quality of riparian forests, while also increasing data collection and raising citizen awareness and interest in conserving local rivers.

Recent transdisciplinary research demonstrates that interaction with Nature provides numerous benefits for human health and well-being. While this provides a valuable opportunity to reconnect people with Nature and offers healthcare professionals with a context to suggest “Green Prescriptions", which are recommendation to engage with natural environments, it also poses ecological risks. Engaging individuals in outdoor activities within environmentally sensitive areas can in fact disturb biodiversity and ecosystem functions, potentially triggering feedback that not only harm the resilience of the ecosystem itself but also reduce the effectiveness of these areas in providing restoration and supporting healing processes. To address these issues, we have developed “Gaia’s Maps”, a framework for mapping and evaluating natural areas to help people respect the environment and cooperate in taking care of ecosystem health as well as their own physical health, according to the Planetary Health perspective. The framework is based on an initial remote-sensing based identification of suitable locations for outdoor activities and Green Prescriptions, that is enriched with open-data and information collected in the field by visitors, who are encouraged to follow criteria suggested by a team of ecologists. An intuitive tool is then created, based on an index depicting the naturalness of the areas and their sensitivity to disturbance: this detects the areas that, although highly beneficial for human well-being, must be respected and protected to uncontrolled outdoor activities to avoid harm. This way, Gaia’s Maps framework promotes environmental education and enables informed and sustainable use of natural spaces. Additionally, it strengthens the relationship between healthcare professionals, who monitor and restore human health, and ecologists, who monitor and restore ecosystem health, underscoring the crucial importance of ecologists in ensuring that both people and ecosystems can thrive together.

Globally, biodiversity and ecosystems are experiencing irreversible losses caused by anthropogenic threats. Species are being lost at an unprecedented rate, causing degradation of ecosystem functioning and services. To address these questions, accurate and up-to-date data covering a wide geographical and temporal scale are needed. However, to support these efforts, there needs to be a concerted focus on education and outreach, to raise awareness for these issues, which in turn can increase bottom-up action and environmental stewardship, as well as democratise the fields of ecology and conservation. Citizen Science (CS) is a powerful approach for gathering the data required to address large-scale research questions and engaging the public in environmental issues. The development of citizen science initiatives and the use of citizen science data has increased in recent decades.

In this framework, a new CS project - CS4Rivers - has defined an innovative approach to measuring the Habitat Quality to facilitate the sustainable management of river ecosystems.

CS4Rivers guided by the University of Siena, within the NBFC with NRRP funds, is active in the Ombrone river basin (South Tuscany), throughout different monitoring activities: chemical water quality, macroinvertebrate community and riparian vegetation.

For macroinvertebrate and riparian vegetation monitoring, CS4Rivers employs a simplified protocol. The Data Quality is verified through comparisons with expert assessment data. Support materials and initial training have been developed for each activity. Preliminary results show the Habitat Quality value obtained by macroinvertebrate community analysis using the simplified and official protocol, and the Data Quality of coverage plant species percentages collected by citizens.

Within CS4Rivers, a pilot project in the Idice river basin (Emilia Romagna), involves 1 school and 3 groups of citizens who monitor the macroinvertebrate community in 7 stations and the riparian vegetation in 20.