An intervention with very few precedents, thanks to which the entire area, with the addition of trees, flower beds, rain gardens and other elements of street furniture, is now able to facilitate the collection of excess rainwater and counteract the formation of heat islands
A road almost a kilometer long and a completely regenerated and functional square with respect to the effects produced by climate changes. This is what happened in Bovisio Masciago, where BrianzAcque completed a sustainable urban drainage project which, in just four months, transformed the face of via Matteotti and Piazzetta Silvio Pellico making them more beautiful, greener, safer. More livable. An intervention with very few precedents, thanks to which the entire area, with the addition of trees, flower beds, rain gardens and other elements of street furniture, is now able to facilitate the collection of excess rainwater and counteract the formation of heat islands.
In the morning, the inauguration of the work, financed almost entirely by the Lombardy Region with places and spaces redesigned by the innovative planning sector of BrianzAcque. The SuDs retrofitting interventions of Via Matteotti in Bovisio Masciago involved over 800 meters of the entire road axis on both sides of the carriageway and are integrated with the existing sidewalks. The bioretention areas, designed to collect water and infiltrate it into the ground rather than into the sewage systems, have been positioned almost continuously along the entire street, thus creating a sort of green “backbone”. A new cycle and pedestrian path painted red runs parallel to the artery with the aim of encouraging local soft mobility. The reduction of carriageways and the limit of 30 km. per hour they help implement security.
The win-win de-waterproofing solution for BrianzAcque and urban redevelopment for the Municipality of Bovisio Masciago finds its climax in the small square on the corner with via Silvio Pellico. This space, chosen not by chance for the planting of the first trees with specimens of dogwood and other native species, represents the heart of a model intervention that will not fail to set an example. And not only in Brianza. In place of the four flowerbeds, bio-retention areas have been created capable of facilitating the drainage of rainwater from the neighboring car park. All with the increase in “green” areas and the creation of shaded areas with walkways, pedestrian piers, benches for rest, games for children. There is also a large hammock for relaxation, which can be used by young and old.
“Today, we are giving back to the community two completely renewed public contexts under the banner of a multi-strategy – declared Enrico Boerci, president and CEO of BrianzAcque – an objective that allows us to combine the issues of rainwater management with that of hydraulic safety, ‘ecology, of social fruition with a general improvement of the environment and quality of life. A model intervention, destined to set a school both locally and nationally by virtue of its wide extension – he concluded – Everyone can go to Bovisio Masciago and admire a concrete application of Let’s make water flourish, the new emblematic design trend of the our vision as a company that has long been committed to mitigating the effects of climate change and that we are ready to replicate in other municipalities in the Province of Monza and Brianza”.
“Thanks to BrianzAcque we have carried out a truly important intervention in our area from many points of view – said the mayor of Bovisio Masciago, Giovanni Sartori – It is not only a redevelopment of the road, but also a truly significant work as regards our relationship with the environment in everyday life. And, I like to underline it, this intervention is precious from a cultural point of view: the first step in Brianza towards a livable area and greater attention to climate change”.
The cost of the operation, of which BrianzAcque was the implementing entity, was financed almost entirely by the Lombardy Region for an amount of 1,374,486.37 granted to the Municipality of Bovisio Masciago as part of the “Lombardy Plan for the defense of the Soil and the mitigation of hydrogeological risks”. In Bovisio Masciago, the construction sites were accompanied by a dissemination project dedicated to elementary school children, which illustrated in a simple and playful way what SuDs are. “Let’s make water flourish” is the claim of the new design strategy adopted by BrianzAcque in the wake of green and blue infrastructure and Natured-Based Solutions. In other words, all those actions which, by mimicking nature, contribute to responding to the fight against the negative impacts generated by climate change and promoting the resilience of ecosystems, bringing widespread and transversal benefits to the community.
“Climate changes – observes Massimiliano Ferazzini, director of innovative design and planning of BrianzAcque – impose the need to adopt adaptation strategies for our inhabited centres, solutions such as the one adopted in Bovisio have the advantage of mitigating the effects of heavy rains leading to value to the territory in terms of regeneration and urban biodiversity”. In Brianza, the next works for the creation of new sustainable urban drainage system projects are foreseen in Cesano Maderno and Meda.
Source-www.adnkronos.com