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.

Spectacle Island used to host disagreeable activities, including a dump site for the city of Boston. In the 1990s, the island received a significant amount of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T) excavated materials. As part of the CA/T Project, also known as the ‘Big Dig’, Spectacle Island was reclaimed and made into a public park. By analyzing Spectacle Island and the process of its construction, this article aims to show that ‘discarded fill’ can be successfully addressed by the design disciplines within a collaborative environment, rather than by technical experts only, as usually happens. Moreover, given the scarcity of literature on the topic, this article aims to contribute to the field by identifying several considerations useful to addressing discarded fill from a design perspective: the complexity of discarded materials management, the possible value of placing discarded materials on visible sites, the different ways in which it is possible to convey the identity of the landscapes constructed with discarded fill, and, finally, the possible role of designers.

This contribution addresses an experimental scientific project aimed at increasing biodiversity through a!orestation, developed by a multidisciplinary group in various parts of Italy within the National Biodiversity Future Centre, Spoke 5 Urban Biodiversity. The focus is on projects carried out in the Città Metropolitana of Milan and in Pistoia, involving the discipline of landscape architecture, in a multidisciplinary environment. The project has a particular nature being scientific while also incorporating spatial and design-oriented disciplines. It engaged with a variety of plots to be repeated, adapted, and monitored in diverse contexts, addressing both the ideal conditions of a scientific project and actual spatial ones. The process and interventions are discussed from a landscape architecture perspective showing the role that can be played by the discipline and reflecting on the value of diversity, both biological and spatial.