STRATEGIC VISION: SANTA GIULIA IN 2030 PGT’S OVERVIEW ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY AND REGENERATION

Give space to the environment - Water and ground

The Plan of Territorial Governance (PGT) of Milan sets some important cornerstones on the vision for a more sustainable city by the year 2030. In this sense, ground and water projects play a key role to reach the goal of mitigating the effects brought in place by climate changes and reducing the hydraulic risks.

The city needs to give space back to rivers, streams, and channels (“Navigli”) in such a way as to enhance Milan’s drainage capacity. To reach this goal, the PGT defines perimeters of intervention with the subtraction or partial removal of the built environment to give place to open spaces – through the transfer of the right to build, fostering urban reforestation. The plan’s strategy is to introduce fragmented green tissues over the central areas and reinforce the metropolitan ecological connections. Also, it is important for the plan to define a strategy to encourage peri-urban agriculture and use of soil saving (making, thus, more land available for green). These tools brought together will create a Common Ecological Network (Rete Ecologica Comunale – REC), in which Santa Giulia plays a key role.

The plan also sets the Perimeters of environmental regeneration (ARA - Ambiti di rigenerazione ambientale), in which occupational and environmental conditions require special attention for regeneration. In these areas, interventions on partial volumetric subtractions are suggested attempting to permeabilize the soil and increment the vegetation heritage. Santa Giulia will be also partially affected by this measure.

Important also to say that in the general perimeter of regeneration, there are some planning mechanisms provided that allow the new projects economic viability, such as the reduction of costs in services availability and incentives that increases the right to build. This is important to make investments keep on going around Santa Giulia after building the sports hall in the area.

Designing a new ecology – Sustainability standards

Now in a more unitary-focused rather than an urban approach, the PGT tries to tackle the climate change drivers through a set of initiatives to diminish greenhouse gases emissions and diminish energy consumption. It faces this problem orienting the transformations in the city through resilient and sustainable innovations. In this sense, the PGT sets the following directives:

• Energetic and climate requalification;

• Materials circularity;

• Building green infrastructure and incrementing biodiversity, also in small areas (urban forestation);

• Eco systemic services creation;

• Raising the drainage capacity of the soil.

The identification of ARAs (where Santa Giulia is also framed) reinforces the design of ecological networks which aims at increasing hydraulic and climate security, as well as favoring social cohesion and livability.

SANTA GIULIA’S ROLE IN THE SYSTEM OF GREEN REGENERATION

The new PGT aims at creating new green areas and connect them, creating a new system of open spaces in Milan. Santa Giulia will be a strategic place, designated as a park and being a focus on the new green corridors of Milan. The picture below shows how this corridor will be a ring around Milan and will connect important places. The figure on the left shows how Santa Giulia is deeply crossed by the Common Ecological Network (REC), connecting it with other nodes of the city and marking the area as an important green infrastructure overall.

Existing Expected Project With Santa Giulia

There are also 3 important projects expected in the PGT that involve Santa Giulia as an important point.

ENVIRONMENTAL VALORIZATION OF LAMBRO’S VALLEY

The main goal of this project is to prevent hydraulic risk and to activate environmental regeneration measures that can contribute to the hydrogeologic and environmental layout. The project extends its measures between Monza and San Donato Milanese in a complex territorial and environmental system. Two important elements here are the River Lambro itself but also the highway Tangenziale Est, which defines the project as a corridor. As shown in Figure 3, this corridor is crossed by other infrastructure elements such as highways A4 and A1, the railroad, and the “Paullese”. These aspects, thus, compose a line with very diverse sections, defining strategic elements and design opportunities. In what competes to Santa Giulia, as shown in Figure 3, it is possible to identify it as a Great Urban Function that can be exactly the south entrance to this huge green corridor that connects important nodes in the city and offers the strategic role of increasing the soil permeability.

Environmental regeneration

Ferrovie

Piazze Metropolitane

Nodi PGT Nodi principali Nodi secondari