Urban afforestation is increasingly regarded as a key strategy for fostering biodiversity to restore and enhance the ecosystem services needed to counteract the effects of climate change in built-up areas. In Italy, several experimental afforestation projects have been launched as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), focusing on cities or metropolitan areas such as Milan, Rome, Pistoia and Campobasso. These projects follow a multidisciplinary approach, integrating botanists, foresters, urban planners, landscape architects and remote sensing specialists. The goal is to address the challenging complexity of urban forest restoration through reforestation and afforestation actions. Key innovations include the integration of transdisciplinary methodologies (landscape analysis, landscape design, forest and plant ecology) with the application of advanced remote sensing technologies and participatory community engagement frameworks to address ecological and social challenges. Experimental plots have been set up across various urban areas, testing a range of planting schemes to maximise climate change resilience and ensure long-term ecological sustainability. Emphasis has been placed on selecting drought-tolerant and thermophilic species that are better adapted to widespread warming and local urban heat islands. ‘Biodiversity strips’ with perennial flowers for insects, shrubs with berries for birds and nests for wild bees and vertebrates have been set up to enhance biodiversity in new afforestation areas. Advanced monitoring tools, such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and multi-sensor drones, have been employed alongside field observations to assess forest growth, species survival, structural complexity and biodiversity enhancement over time. Historical analyses of landscape patterns and ecological connectivity over the past 200 years, along with evaluations of afforestation projects from the last 70 years, have provided critical insights into the successes and challenges of previous interventions, serving as a guide for future efforts. By focusing on ecological connectivity, the integration of afforested areas into the urban matrix, and citizen engagement, the current project aims to align urban forestry efforts with sustainable development goals. This comprehensive project framework addresses environmental restoration and the social and aesthetic impacts on local communities, contributing to the overall resilience and well-being of urban and peri-urban ecosystems.

We analysed the floristic subdivisions of Albania by hierarchical clustering of all the vascular plant species of Albania over a grid of 25 km cells, adapting data from the Vascular Species Distribution Atlas in Albania of ( Barina Z (ed.) (2017) Distribution atlas of vascular plants in Albania. Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest). We identified the principal axes of variation of the flora and the bioclimatic variables that explain it. We also analysed the bioclimate of Albania by means of a self-organizing map (SOM) of the main climatic variables and the application of the global bioclimatic model of Rivas-Martínez. We compared the analysis based on the flora with that based on the bioclimate. The results divided Albania into eight floristic units corresponding to the main vegetation types (Carpinus orientalis woodlands, Quercus cerris woodlands, Quercus petraea and Fagus sylvatica woodlands, Quercus coccifera woodlands, Quercus coccifera and Quercus ithaburensis woodlands, Pinus heldreichii woodlands, alpine vegetation of North Albania, and alpine vegetation of eastern Albania). Two main trends of variation can be recognized: four elevational belts, strongly correlated with average July temperature, and a north–south subdivision, weakly correlated with annual rainfall and thermal excursion. The bioclimatic analysis (SOM and Rivas-Martínez model) resolves and adds detail to the axis of the elevational belts but cannot discern the north–south subdivision apart from the high mountains. We obtained a division into eight floristic units ordered according to two gradients: four elevational belts, each in turn subdivided into a north-central and a southern province. These two gradients seem to have a broader meaning in Southern Europe, particularly the north–south subdivision at about 30° latitude. The partial mismatch between the bioclimate and the flora indicates that bioclimatic models of Europe are in need of a revision and suggests that the history, in addition to the present-day climate (for instance, the vegetation of the last glacial maximum), can play a role in shaping the biogeography of Southern Europe.

Palo Laziale Wood is a relatively small biotope (129 ha) situated along the coast of the Metropolitan Area of Rome, Lazio region, Italy. Despite being one of the region's remaining patches of an ancient oak floodplain broad-leaved forest, it conserves numerous priority habitats and species of high conservation interest. The vegetation consists mainly of Turkey oak stands with small temporary ponds and flooded meadows. The forest underwent a dieback in 2003, triggered by a significantly hot and dry summer. In 2018, an ecological restoration project (LIFE PRIMED LIFE17 NAT/GR/000511) was initiated to restore Palo Laziale’s ecosystems. This paper presents the methodological approach employed to assess the vegetation ecology of a degraded forest ecosystem. Such an investigation was a key component of the Adaptative Restoration Plan of the Project. It provided the baseline necessary for designing and calibrating the planned direct conservation actions on the target habitat types (91M0: Pannonian-Balkanic turkey oak-sessile oak forests, 3170*: Mediterranean temporary ponds, 5230*: Arborescent matorral with Laurus nobilis, etc.) and establishing reference values to enable long-term monitoring. Plant taxa comparison from 1 ha square-grid sampling and multivariate analyses were carried out to group species and identify environmental and Ellenberg-based drivers. Six ecologically distinct units were found, eventually confirming the distinctive ecological heterogeneity of Mediterranean ecosystems. Amongst these, the hygrophilous vegetation has resulted to be the one mainly affected by the dieback outbreak. Due to the high heterogeneity, introduced by the massive tree mortality, the method of regular 1 ha squares turned out to be a reliable alternative to random vegetation sampling plots (e.g., phytosociological relevés) to disentangle ecological patterns of fragmented and disturbed habitats.

The aim of this study is to analyze the floristic changes occurred between 1991 and 2018 in the “Pineto Urban Regional Park” (Rome) as a result of a land-use change that in mid-90s led to the abandonment of traditional pasture practices and a shift to a more intense frequentation for recreational purposes. About 25 years after the change in management the area has a similar floristic richness, but it is characterized by a high turnover rate, a significant homogenization of the flora and a change in the community structure with a higher level of dominance. The removal of the pasture, which has favoured an increasing frequentation by people, seems to be the main driver of these changes. We suggest that a more active management, with the reintroduction of a sustainable grazing and a limitation of the fruition in marginal areas close to the urban matrix, could restore an higher diversity and reverse the homogenization processes detected in this study and at the same time ensure the citizen fruition.